The Problem Of The Global Desertification And Its Causes And Effects

Introduction

Farming has its origin since the birth of the first human being on the earth (Schlesinger et al., 1990). Currently, about 1/3 part of the earth is comprised of desert and semi-desert land (De Pinto et al., 2017). In China, about 30 per cent of the land becomes deserted every year due to the process of desertification (Guan, He, Li, Yin, & Qiu, 2017).

Importance Of The Topic

• Desertification is the process in which productive land has been converted into non-productive land (Nicholson, Tucker, & Ba, 1998).
• It is mainly caused by mankind’s behaviour and the impact of global warming on the planet (Bao et al., 2017).
• The topic is significant because if less land is available for production, then there will be less food, which will result in a problem towards food security (Bestelmeyer et al., 2015).

Objective Of The Study

The current study will highlight the causes and problems causing the process of global desertification and also discuss the impact of desertification all around the globe respectively (von Hardenberg, Meron, Shachak, & Zarmi, 2001).

Causes Of Desertification

There are two major global causes of desertification:

• Overgrazing: The number of farm animals is increasing at a higher rate, which results in more grazing. It leads to the process of desertification (Reynolds et al., 2007).
• Deforestation: The world’s human population is increasing at a higher rate. People need more space on the land to build their houses and other infrastructure (Park et al., 2018). The cities are expanding at a larger rate. This results in a reduction of the land available for cultivation. The total forest land is decreasing, causing desertification on the Earth (Zanchetta, Bitelli, & Karnieli, 2016).

Global Effects Of Desertification

Desertification has very serious impacts at the Global level; those are as follows:

• Migration: A large number of people are moving from rural to urban areas due to the negative effects of desertification. For example, the migration from Mexico to the USA is all because of desertification (Symeonakis, Karathanasis, Koukoulas, & Panagopoulos, 2016).
• Dust Storms: Desertification is the major cause of global dust storms that affect the health of people, mainly young people. For example, there has been a dust storm in China for about three weeks, and it has caused the closing of the roads, railways, airports and hospitals respectively (Wang, Sun, Fu, Xu, & Wang, 2017).
• Global Food Security: Desertification is also a major cause of the global food crises (Berdugo, Kéfi, Soliveres, & Maestre, 2017).

Regional Effect Of Desertification

Desertification also has serious negative impacts at the local level. Those are as follows:

• People in rural areas have more floods, and they are forced to migrate to cities.
• There are about 2 billion people living in rural areas, mainly from developing economies, who are being affected because they are highly dependent on agriculture for survival (Geist, 2017).

Conclusion

• The current study has examined the causes and effects of global desertification. There are many causes of desertification, but a high rate of population growth is the major cause of global desertification (Bastin et al., 2017).
• It has caused huge migration and resulted in overcrowding in the cities.
• It also results in abnormal changes in the climate, like floods and dust storms.

Suggestion

• Desertification is a serious issue and should need special attention because it is not only a problem for developing economies but for all economies of the globe (Kéfi et al., 2007).

Recommendations

• It is necessary to look for possible cheap measures.
• There should be alternative methods of energy to avoid the rapid cutting of trees.
• Scientists must develop techniques to restore deserts into productive land.

References

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