Pandora’s Trojan Horse Enjoys Desertification

Deserts grow, shrink, and shift naturally, they do not have defined borders that are static. The primary cause of increased desertification however, is human mismanagement of the land. This has occurred since shortly after people took to farming. Egypt use to be the bread basket of the world, the once mighty Maya culture declined long before European contact because of desertification, and of course Easter Island where the Giant Moai heads stand sentinel over scrub and wasteland, that was once a well treed and highly productive landscape.
Today with our growing world population there is already increased pressure on marginal land to produce food. In many cases there are unsustainable farming practices, which increase production in the short term, but also damage the viability of the soil in the long term. Climate change will increase the overall world temperature by 2 – 4 degrees, and it will also change rainfall patterns, thus making some marginal lands even drier. This will only exacerbate the problem of desertification.