The Great Desert Expansion of 2005

Apparently Earth's Deserts are virtually taking over the planets landmass and could threaten the 2008 Olympics in Bejing.

Sands of Time: Earth's Expanding Deserts Can't Be Stopped
SAN FRANCISCO--Dust storms and drought don't get as much press as hurricanes or rising sea levels, but they threaten the world nonetheless. They could even hit the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.

On every continent the number of dust storms is increasing. The U.S. Department of Agriculture -- once the second-largest bureaucracy in Washington next to the Pentagon, until Homeland Security bumped it -- is not yet ready to proclaim a "Dust Bowl II." But it has released photos that show the awesome similarity between the first and the putative second dust bowl.

Besides afflicting people with sundry diseases, dust bowls can ravage entire agricultural economies. The Dust Bowl of the 1930s forced thousands of "Okies" and "Arkies" to emigrate to California. And Chinese environmentalists have raised the alarm after a survey earlier this year found almost a third of China's land mass is now desert.
news.pacificnews.org...

The Irony is amazing. While we are busy with 24/7 news coverage about the Popes death, Right-Wing/Left-Wing talk and preoccupied with the Terri Shiavo case Mother Nature is ochestrating an elaborate plan totake-over her planet. We've proven that we cannot co-exist with nature, the 'dominator attitude' of man has prevailed and we have lost the ancient 'partnership society' which our ancestors many moons ago operated within. We can't ignore the Earth, and it's letting us know this.


[edit on 4/6/2005 by Simulacra]

Here is another story on Chinas most imminent threat, desert expansion which averages 2,650 kilometers every year.

China is Losing the War on Advancing Deserts
China is now at war. Its territory is being claimed not by invading armies but by expanding deserts. Old deserts are advancing and new ones are forming, forcing Beijing to fight on several fronts. And, worse, the growing deserts are gaining momentum, occupying an ever-larger piece of China's territory each year.

Desert expansion has accelerated with each successive decade since 1950. China's Environmental Protection Agency reports that from 1994 to 1999 the Gobi Desert expanded by 52,400 square kilometers, or 20,240 square miles, an area half the size of South Korea. With the advancing Gobi now within 240 kilometers, or 150 miles, of Beijing, China's leaders are beginning to sense the gravity of the situation.

Overplowing and overgrazing are converging to create a dust bowl of historic dimensions. With little vegetation remaining in parts of northern and western China, the strong winds of late winter and early spring can remove literally millions of tons of topsoil in a single day - soil that can take centuries to replace.
www.commondreams.org...

Fascinating ... I am gonna have to take a day off this week and look into this.. Thanks for the post simulacra *handshake

LOL!!!

Forest cover is increasing in the U.S. and Canada. Currently the U.S. has the same amount of land covered by forests as 1900 and more than 1970. Of the increase in forest cover since 1970 about 80% is natural expansion, the balance is reforestation of agricultural and other lands. Recent peer reviewed inventories (conducted according the 1992 Montreal Protocols -- the UN sanctioned method of forest inventory) indicate not only is the amount of old growth forest increasing in California, there is more conifer old growth than ever existed historically.

Forest cover is increasing in Europe. Ireland and Scotland have large reforestation programs in place. Forest growth rates are increasing in Germany and Russia.

Originally posted by dave_54
Forest cover is increasing in the U.S. and Canada. Currently the U.S. has the same amount of land covered by forests as 1900 and more than 1970. Of the increase in forest cover since 1970 about 80% is natural expansion, the balance is reforestation of agricultural and other lands. Recent peer reviewed inventories (conducted according the 1992 Montreal Protocols -- the UN sanctioned method of forest inventory) indicate not only is the amount of old growth forest increasing in California, there is more conifer old growth than ever existed historically.

Forest cover is increasing in Europe. Ireland and Scotland have large reforestation programs in place. Forest growth rates are increasing in Germany and Russia.

That's some good news for sure. It does not, however, negate the fact that in other areas the deserts are rapidly expanding, right? Also, the glaciers everywhere on Earth are retreating with an amazing speed (I've seen a few of this retreats myself), which means less water supply -- in some countries this is already a problem.

So like I said, great to hear we have more trees here in the US, but guess what... We are losing them at a geat rate in Brasil, Cambodia and elswhere.

Dave_54

I guess theres more ways to beat china.

let the deserts do the work

"...That's some good news for sure. It does not, however, negate the fact that in other areas the deserts are rapidly expanding, right? Also, the glaciers everywhere on Earth are retreating with an amazing speed (I've seen a few of this retreats myself), which means less water supply -- in some countries this is already a problem. [My comment -- Except where the glaciers are increasing and advancing. It's not everywhere, it's mixed.]

So like I said, great to hear we have more trees here in the US, but guess what... We are losing them at a geat rate in Brasil, Cambodia and elswhere..."

True. The single largest cause of deforestation worldwide, with over 50% of all wood consumed, is fuelwood gathering for heating and cooking. But the article claimed deserts are increasing on every continent and clearly they are not. The Sonoran desert of the U.S. southwest is decreasing. Partly from urban encroachment, partly from expansion of shrub and related woody plant communities. Mojave is the same. The Great Basin is a different matter, it may or may not be classified as a desert depending on the definition used (I call it a steppe grassland, others differ). 5000 years ago the Pinyon-Juniper (PJ) forest of the Great Basin did not exist, it was all a prairie. PJ's northernmost extent was about the Colorado River. Now PJ expansion is threatening to eliminate native grass ecosystem in the Basin.

This article is just another in a long line of sky-is-falling hysteria. There are trouble spots in the world, no one is denying that. But the world as a whole is improving. It appears some factions in the environmental industry just cannot accept victory and move on to solving other problems -- they just keep refighting the same battles they have already won.



[edit on 18-4-2005 by dave_54]

Here is another story that I stumbled upon regarding the desertification of China which has the possiblity or preventing the 2008 olympics from occuring.

Beijing's Desert Storm

We have no money to move and, besides, who would have us?" says Su. "There's nothing to do but dig away the sand and wait to see what happens. Sometimes I dream of the sand falling around me faster than I can dig away. The sand chokes me. I worry that in real life, the sand will win."

Su and his neighbors are ethnic Manchurians who survive by cultivating subsistence crops and raising horses, goats and pigs. But this year violent sandstorms dumped entire dunes into the once-fertile Fengning county valley. Now most of the grass is gone and the Chaobai River stands dry. Besieged villagers say they have no idea where the sand came from. The scary bit? Su's almost-buried house is nowhere near the heart of China's rapidly encroaching deserts. It is just 160 km north of Beijing. Suddenly, rural Langtougou has become a barren outpost on the front line of a national battlefield.

Premier Zhu Rongji raised the war cry in this very village in May, after the worst sandstorms in memory buffeted Beijing. Zhu stood on Su's roof, pledging urgent measures to combat the encroaching sand. Then the premier left with his entourage, a huge government caravan, on 1,000-kilometer safari across China's desert hotspots. The next month newspapers ran daily stories about desertification as armies of tree-planters were mobilized. The 5th Plenum of the Communist Party Central Committee, starting Oct. 9, has put the issue near the top of its agenda. Zhu has called it "an alarm for the entire nation."


www.gluckman.com...

I'v discussed this story many times in ATS chat. I currently still believe that nature is the biggest threat to China as well as the rest of the world. More so than Nuclear Warfare. Geologist has found no way to stop this mysterious desertification of China which is expected to reach Bejing in only a couple of years.

Debating over mundane political issues is senseless. People take natures stablity for granted and don't realize that the earth has no responbility to sustain us.

This is the most slept on issue this year.


[edit on 5/22/2005 by Simulacra]

Great work Simulacra, and great pics.

This is a serious issue. No doubt about it. And even though the spin says the US is just fine, the fact is that we've sucked dry most of our fresh water sources from the Great Plains/Ogallalah aquifer to whatever else was handy.

I've seen some interesting history about desertification destroying empires - any links by any chance?

Here's one
This is interesting because people talk so much about Global Warming and miss out on things like this.

Yes I must say this is somthing to look into Simulacra

Seems you have done your home work!