Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- 1 Introduction
- 2 The atmospheric dynamics of deserts
- 3 The climates of the world deserts
- 4 Atmospheric and surface energy budgets of deserts
- 5 Surface physics of the unvegetated sandy desert landscape
- 6 Vegetation effects on desert surface physics
- 7 Substrate effects on desert surface physics
- 8 Desert-surface physical properties
- 9 Numerical modeling of desert atmospheres
- 10 Desert boundary layers
- 11 Desert microclimates
- 12 Dynamic interactions among desert microclimates
- 13 Desert rainfall
- 14 Anthropogenic effects on the desert atmosphere
- 15 Changes in desert climate
- 16 Severe weather in the desert
- 17 Effects of deserts on the global environment and other regional environments
- 18 Desertification
- 19 Biometeorology of humans in desert environments
- 20 Optical properties of desert atmospheres
- Appendix A Glossary of meteorological and land-surface terms
- Appendix B Abbreviations
- Appendix C Units, numerical constants, and conversion factors
- Appendix D Symbols
- Appendix E Maps of the world
- Hints to solving some problems and exercises
- References
- Index
- Plate section
- References
18 - Desertification
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 September 2009
Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- 1 Introduction
- 2 The atmospheric dynamics of deserts
- 3 The climates of the world deserts
- 4 Atmospheric and surface energy budgets of deserts
- 5 Surface physics of the unvegetated sandy desert landscape
- 6 Vegetation effects on desert surface physics
- 7 Substrate effects on desert surface physics
- 8 Desert-surface physical properties
- 9 Numerical modeling of desert atmospheres
- 10 Desert boundary layers
- 11 Desert microclimates
- 12 Dynamic interactions among desert microclimates
- 13 Desert rainfall
- 14 Anthropogenic effects on the desert atmosphere
- 15 Changes in desert climate
- 16 Severe weather in the desert
- 17 Effects of deserts on the global environment and other regional environments
- 18 Desertification
- 19 Biometeorology of humans in desert environments
- 20 Optical properties of desert atmospheres
- Appendix A Glossary of meteorological and land-surface terms
- Appendix B Abbreviations
- Appendix C Units, numerical constants, and conversion factors
- Appendix D Symbols
- Appendix E Maps of the world
- Hints to solving some problems and exercises
- References
- Index
- Plate section
- References
Summary
The desert lies in wait for arable land and never lets go.
Fernand Braudel The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip II (1972)I think, if I may say so, we have been considering the Sahara rather from the wrong point of view. All the stress has been laid on “the encroachment” of the Sahara, but I would rather like to put it that the Sahara has seized the opportunity of man's stupidity.
Sir Arthur Hill, Director of the Royal Gardens The encroaching Sahara: The threat to the West African colonies (Edward Percey Stebbing 1935)Our land, compared by what it was, is like the skeleton of a body wasted by disease. The plump soft parts have vanished and all that remains is the bare carcass.
Plato, Greek philosopher Critias (4th century B. C.)We know that the white man does not understand our ways … He treats his mother, the earth and his brother, the sky as things to be bought, plundered, sold like sheep or bright beads. His appetite will devour the earth and leave behind only a desert.
Chief Seattle, Native American, in a letter to the Great White Chief in Washington (1854)… everybody knows that the using up still goes on, perhaps not so fast nor so recklessly as it once did, but unmistakably nevertheless. And there is nowhere that it goes on more nakedly, more persistently or with a fuller realization of what is happening than in the desert regions where the margin to be used up is narrower.
Joseph Wood Krutch, American author and conservationist The Voice of the Desert (1956)- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Desert Meteorology , pp. 457 - 490Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2004
References
Brandt, C. J., and J. B. Thornes, 1996: Mediterranean Desertification and Land Use – for the Mediterranean, contains a history of desertification and land use, a treatment of climate and climate change, a discussion of various field programs that have studied desertification processes, and a description of the modeling of different components of the desertification process
Eckholm, E. P., 1976: Losing Ground: Environmental Stress and World Food Prospects – a discussion of deforestation and various other causes of desertification, with a treatment of land degradation in the humid tropics
Glantz, M. H. (Ed.), 1994: Drought Follows the Plow: Cultivating Marginal Areas – discusses drought, desertification, and food production, and offers a number of case studies of desertification in the West African Sahel, Somalia, northeast Brazil, the dry region of Kenya, Australia, Ethiopia, northwest Africa, the former Soviet Union, and South Africa
Grainger, A., 1990: The Threatening Desert – discusses the causes and definition of desertification, its scale, and its control
Hellden, U., 1991: Assessing desertification – reviews the processes and status of desertification
Lowdermilk, W. C., 1953: Conquest of the Land Through 7000 Years – a short summary, based on field observations, of the effects of agriculture, as practiced over the past seven millennia, on soil erosion and desertification
Mainguet, M., 1991: Desertification: Natural Background and Human Mismanagement – contains summaries of the various meanings of desertification. An extremely comprehensive list of references is provided
Thomas, D. S. G., 1997c: Science and the desertification debate – discusses the social and science dimensions of the desertification problem, and why scientific findings may have been misinterpreted by policy makers. It also identifies areas where science still has a role to play
Thomas, D. S. G., and N. J. Middleton, 1994: Desertification: Exploding the myth – a general reference on desertification, with a comprehensive description of the institutional and historical aspects of the problem. It does justice to its title. An extremely comprehensive list of references is provided
Warren, A., et al., 1996: The future of deserts – describes the many pressures on arid lands, from urban and rural population increases, oil development, and water development, and the impacts on soil, vegetation, and climate
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