| Desertification History
The Great Plains in the US is known as the Dust Bowl because of start of desertification. In the 1930s, the Great Plains were subjected to overgrazing and also experienced drought leading to the desertification. This saw many of the people living leaving their farms and homes, and moving to other parts of the country. |
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However, the government took an initiative to improve water management in the area, and this resulted in the desertification being stopped and reversed to a certain extent. However, in other developing countries, people are not so lucky.The desertification history is nearly the same in all parts of the world. When a satellite image of Lake Chad was taken in 2001, it showed a nice lake with fresh water. However, compared to the size in the 1960s, the lake has shrunk around 95 percent.
The same story is also prevalent in China. In fact, desertification is quite a problem there. Since 1949, more people have migrated to rural areas in the country. This led to an increased in cattle and other livestock, but the size of the land remained the same. So, this led to rampant grazing and was the major cause of desertification.
In many tropical areas, people have resorted to cutting down forests and trees to make space for agriculture. This deforestation led to desertification in many tropical regions as soil erosion and loss of nutrients from the soil got worse. One example of severe desertification is Madagascar. Nearly 7 percent of the country is infertile and barren because of deforestation that was done decades ago.
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Desertification History
