There has been a long history of assertions of widespread and irreversible desertification occurring in the Sahel of Africa (Dregne, 1983; Lamprey, 1988; Middleton et al., 1997). During the 1970s, in particular - when Lamprey's report was originally written - the United Nations spearheaded a massive media campaign to warn the world about the phenomenon; and as recently as August 2002, leaders of the UN Environment Program told the World Summit on Sustainable Development held in Johannesburg that over 45% of the continent was at that time experiencing severe desertification. Several years earlier, however, scientists had already begun to realize that these assertions were no longer true.
Posted to remind us that prior to Global Warming and Kyoto, the big eco-crisis was desertification. The predicted consequences were remarkly similar to the current GW scare - large parts of the world uninhabitable and tens/hundreds of millions of refugees. The scare may change but the agenda remains the same. |