Desertification, explained
Humans are driving the transformation of drylands into desert on an unprecedented scale around the world, with serious consequences. But there are solutions.
Temporary Drought or Permanent Desert?
Scientists are beginning to say that desertification is a reduction in the productivity of the land that is not reversible.
Desertification and its effects
Desertification is the persistent degradation of dryland ecosystems by climate change and mainly human activities: unsustainable farming that depletes the nutrients in the soil, mining, overgrazing (animals eat away grasses and erode topsoil with their hooves) and clear-cutting of land, when the tree and plant cover that binds the soil is removed.
