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Africa's deserts are in "spectacular" retreat
New Scientist.com ^ | 18 September 02 | Fred Pearce

Posted on 09/19/2002 11:39:03 AM PDT by aculeus

The southern Saharan desert is in retreat, making farming viable again in what were some of the most arid parts of Africa.

Burkina Faso, one of the West African countries devastated by drought and advancing deserts 20 years ago, is growing so much greener than families who fled to wetter coastal regions are starting to go home.

New research confirming this remarkable environmental turnaround is to be presented to Burkina Faso's ministers and international aid agencies in November. And it is not just Burkina Faso.

New Scientist has learned that a separate analysis of satellite images completed this summer reveals that dunes are retreating right across the Sahel region on the southern edge of the Sahara desert. Vegetation is ousting sand across a swathe of land stretching from Mauritania on the shores of the Atlantic to Eritrea 6000 kilometres away on the Red Sea coast.

Nor is it just a short-term trend. Analysts say the gradual greening has been happening since the mid-1980s, though has gone largely unnoticed. Only now is the evidence being pieced together.

Firewood and grassland

Aerial photographs taken in June show "quite spectacular regeneration of vegetation", in northern Burkina Faso, according to Chris Reij of the Free University, Amsterdam.

There are more trees for firewood and more grassland for livestock. And a survey among farmers shows a 70 per cent increase in yields of local cereals such as sorghum and millet in one province in recent years. The survey, which Reij is collating, was paid for by Dutch, German and American overseas aid agencies.

Meanwhile, Kjeld Rasmussen of the University of Copenhagen has been looking in detail at sand dunes in the same area. Once they seemed to be marching south. But since the 1980s, he says, there has been a "steady reduction in bare ground" with "vegetation cover, including bushes and trees, on the increase on the dunes".

Rising rainfall

Desertification is still often viewed as an irreversible process triggered by a deadly combination of declining rainfall and destructive farming methods. In August, the UN Environment Programme told the World Summit in Johannesburg that over 45 per cent of Africa is in the grip of desertification, with the Sahel worst affected.

But a team of geographers from Britain, Sweden and Denmark has spent the summer re-examining archive satellite images taken across the Sahel. Andrew Warren of University College London told New Scientist that the unpublished analysis shows that "vegetation seems to have increased significantly" in the past 15 years, with major regrowth in southern Mauritania, northern Burkina Faso, north-western Niger, central Chad, much of Sudan and parts of Eritrea.

But there is confusion over why the Sahel is becoming green. Rasmussen believes the main reason is increased rainfall since the great droughts of the early 1970s and 1980s. But farmers have also been adopting better methods of keeping soil and water on their land.


TOPICS:
KEYWORDS: africawatch; enviralists
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1 posted on 09/19/2002 11:39:03 AM PDT by aculeus
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To: aculeus
Global cooling. I hate when that happens.
2 posted on 09/19/2002 11:43:50 AM PDT by billhilly
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To: billhilly
Hmmm, how to spin this as a "bad thing" and blame it on America...
(The NYT's writers will be up all night on this one.)
3 posted on 09/19/2002 11:46:27 AM PDT by Psalm 73
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To: Psalm 73
Now all those Somalis, Yemeni's, Algerians, Morrocans and other assorted North Africans can go home...
4 posted on 09/19/2002 11:47:50 AM PDT by spokeshave
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To: aculeus
Oh no. We're all gonna die.

Oops... Wrong story.

They must have run that one by mistake.

There will be a correction in the next edition: "Africa's deserts expanding, Americans seen as main culprit".
5 posted on 09/19/2002 11:47:56 AM PDT by dinasour
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To: billhilly; dighton; aculeus; Orual; general_re; Poohbah
"Global cooling."

WE'RE GONNA DIE ... WE'RE GONNA DIE ... WE'RE ALL GOING TO FREEZE TO DEATH IN THE DARK. DRIVE MORE SUV'S ... MAKE MORE GREENHOUSE GASES ...

AAAAARRRGGGHHH! (Falling on the floor, chewing the carpet)

6 posted on 09/19/2002 11:49:06 AM PDT by BlueLancer
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To: Psalm 73
Hmmm, how to spin this as a "bad thing" and blame it on America...

But UN agricultural planners worry that an increasing wealth in the region will lead to other problems, like reliance on medicines and demand for clean water, normally associated with Western culture. :)
7 posted on 09/19/2002 11:49:54 AM PDT by July 4th
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To: aculeus
It's always good that people have a land that can grow the food to feed themselves. That is great news.

Now if they could only stop raping the girls, slavery and killing whites in Africa, the start of civility might emerge.

8 posted on 09/19/2002 11:50:23 AM PDT by A CA Guy
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To: aculeus
The greenies must be howling, as this is obviously the wrong spin.

Desert Habitat Shrinking! Extinctions Threatened! Man's Influence Suspected.

9 posted on 09/19/2002 11:53:56 AM PDT by VadeRetro
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To: BlueLancer
This follows the "ozone hole is shrinking" story. Have pity on the poor eviromentalists.
10 posted on 09/19/2002 11:57:46 AM PDT by aculeus
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To: aculeus
All them plants like the CO2.
11 posted on 09/19/2002 12:00:21 PM PDT by Mr. Peabody
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To: aculeus
All them plants like the CO2.
12 posted on 09/19/2002 12:00:33 PM PDT by Mr. Peabody
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To: aculeus
Send Mugabe over there, he'll turn it back to desert in no time.
13 posted on 09/19/2002 12:01:59 PM PDT by dfwgator
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To: aculeus; BlueLancer; Orual; general_re; Poohbah
MERRILL ANALYST: LOOMING SILICON SHORTAGE 'CATASTROPHIC' FOR CHIPMAKERS
14 posted on 09/19/2002 12:04:49 PM PDT by dighton
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To: dighton; Orual; general_re; BlueLancer; Poohbah
Quick, order your SAVE THE SAHARA bumper sticker!
15 posted on 09/19/2002 12:08:29 PM PDT by aculeus
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To: aculeus
SAVE THE DESERTS!
16 posted on 09/19/2002 12:09:50 PM PDT by finnman69
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To: aculeus
BUMP
17 posted on 09/19/2002 12:12:15 PM PDT by RippleFire
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To: aculeus
Oh no, more "Fringe toed sand-lizard" habitat gone forever!
18 posted on 09/19/2002 12:12:30 PM PDT by Howie
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To: aculeus; dighton; general_re
Dah-DAH-dah-dah-dah-dah
19 posted on 09/19/2002 12:19:25 PM PDT by Orual
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To: *AfricaWatch; *Enviralists; Clive
Index Bump
20 posted on 09/19/2002 12:23:08 PM PDT by Free the USA
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