Desertification and deforestization, a valid concern?

Question

Thanks for the good answers to my earlier question, I appreciate it. Now to another.

I see a lot of worries about these two topics in the various links I go to, but it always seems to be contradictory (again). Global warming will result in more precip in some places and less in others. Isn't that what we have now? I may be wrong, but haven't places like the Sahara been getting drier for hundreds, if not thousands of years already? I always see the proponents telling the skeptics to think on a global basis, not a local one, yet in this area, the global effect seems to be a wash.

Does it really matter if some areas get a little drier and the vegetation dwindles, while others get warmer and wetter and the vegetation expands? I know it will inconvenience some, but globally thinking, it that a valid concern?

Answer 1

The problem is that the processes of deforestation and desertification are occurring faster than reforestation, one effect is to reduce the global rate of transpiration (the rate at which plants give off water vapor to the atmosphere, forests have especially high rates of this especially in the tropics where deforestation is at its highest) this reduces the global rainfall rate which increases desertification and in turn makes other types of land dryer.  

The main effect of the latter is converting usable farmland into land which cannot support the requirements of agriculture as it is too arid, which is also a bad thing given that arable land is yet another resources which is being slowly pushed to its limits especially as the global population continues to rise, and it also contributes to deforestation as the majority of replacement farmland comes from using slash and burn methods to create new farmland from originally forested areas.  Even with all the deforestation to create new farmland we still loose an average of 4,114,419 hectares of the 8,550,000,000 ha of arable land available each year globally, that is the equivalent of a hectare every 7.67 seconds.

As you can see both of these processes are actually linked cyclically in a positive feedback loop, deforestation makes land more arid causing desertification which in turn leads to further deforestation.

Answer 2

Yes Here's what we could do. Replant the rain forests that have been cut (It's an extensive area). And if we can knock down those pesky mountains blocking those deserts and stealing all their rainfall, this won't take that much, only 256,591 gazillion dollars! But we can do it if we buy a horse and only consume 25 calories a day. Nobel peace prize winners are exempt. They can spend 30,000 dollars for power and just fly around in their jets supervising!

Answer 3

NASA photographs show that the Sahara used to have many rivers going through it.  These rivers got covered several thousand years ago.

Climate is never the same, it's not static.  The climate always changes.  This is natural.

To say that change is normal, but the change today is not is just folly.

Answer 4

Its alarming the rate of conversion of a sodden soil to sand, a metre a year for the sahara. What a lot of people dont understand is that it just doesnt affect there region but the earth as a whole. The hard woods are a natural filter of oxides transforming it into oxygen, water and other useful forms. governments should be focusing more at deforestation and replanting then at just greenhouse gas emissions and start implementing alternate power/transport solutions. Oil seems to run this world and its a shame it does as there are so many alternatives at a significantly cheaper cost.

Answer 5

Desertification - The reason this is a problem, is due to the fact that the deserts are getting larger. Whether it's due to the climate changing or factors like the wind coming from a drier location causing the desert to have less rain fall, it's still a concern we all need to take seriously.

Deforestation - This is an even a bigger concern than Desertification, since not only do forests (especially rain-forests) soak up CO2, but they are also are biggest source of O2. And if we don't conserve our forests by replanting one to two trees for every tree we cut down (They should also be the same type of tree that was cut down) we will have an uncontrollable CO2 problem with decreasing O2.

Blue Green algae was what helped develop O2 in the first place, but is there enough of it left in the world to compensate for the loss of trees. Right now it sure doesn't look that way, otherwise CO2 wouldn't be on the rise at all and we wouldn't even being worrying about it being a pollutant.

Answer 6

In terms of the Sahara desert I think its a valid concern.  The desert keeps growing.  Its not like part of it is expanding and part of it is shrinking.  I see your point though. People want the area they live in to be OK. They don't want to have to move to another continent to live in a livable climate.