Desertification
Desertification
Desertification is the process whereby the natural vegetation cover of the enviroment is destroyed by the activities of man. When that occurs, dry climatic conditions may set in to prevent any type of vegetation from growing . This makes the land to gradually become bare as desert conditions are now created.
How can this be caused?
And how can it also be prevented or minimized?
Comments (47)
20 Apr 2020
Desertification can be caused by deforestation, bush burning over-grazing and urbanization. Desertification can be prevented by afforestation, education, controlling over-grazing and maintaining forest reserves.
20 Apr 2020
Desertification is caused by poor human lifestyle
In what way?
20 Apr 2020
It can be prevented by :planting trees
:caring for environment.
20 Apr 2020
Urbanisation is one major cause of desertification.... In the developing world of today...people just but think of how they will own mansions... Factories...and all that...the competition brought about by this makes people forget that there is no way one will run a coffee factory without coffee...and coffee needs a fertile land and favourable weather conditions to survive...the sewers from this industries makes the land barren..and dry off.
Thank you for this interesting comment about urbanization. Can you think of other ways that communities can develop and live together that doesn't involve the competitive drive and aggressive industrialization that you describe?
20 Apr 2020
It can be prevented by minimising the number of industries and factories in specific areas...the other part of the land left can be cultivated in order to curb desertification..... Fertilisers should be distributed all over..to improve the less productive and barren lands.
This is a really interesting argument. Can you tell me more about how factories can harm the nearby land? What is it about factories and industries that is problematic for nature?
20 Apr 2020
Desertification is when the earth beauty or origin disappear by somethings like overgrazing,excess raining and all sort of mankind bad activities.
20 Apr 2020
Through indiscriminate felling of trees without planting new ones to replace them. Sand winning, illegal mining ,bush burning use of chemicals for farming and construction of roadsnd settlements
20 Apr 2020
We should practice afforestation. Able bodied persons should at least plant trees or encourage others to plant trees in their life time. Governments should regulate the activities of illegal miners, game hunters as well as embarking on education campaigns on the consequences of desertification.
Good ideas. What might be some of the challenges with this approach?
We will need to cut some for furniture
21 Apr 2020
Overgrazing is the major cause of desertification.If there are too many animals that are overgrazing in certain places, it makes the plants hard to grow back. Other causes include deforestation, urbanisation and climate change. I hope my answers are correct :)
This is a very relevant point and your answers are spot on! Why do you think overgrazing happens in the first place? How can we balance human needs to farm animals with protecting land and giving it a chance to recover? How have other societies and governments tried to solve this issue?
21 Apr 2020
Desertification is caused by human activities such as:
1.overstocking -which is keeping large number of livestock.
Mono-croping -which is planting the same type of crop in the same land for a long time.
And it can be minimized by practicing zero grazing if possible to avoid overstocking and also practicing agro forestry to avoid mono-croping
This sounds really interesting and is very well explained. Could you tell me more about what agro-forestry and mono-cropping is? I would be interested to hear more about how that can help the problems you outline.
Monocropping is the practice of growing a single crop year after year on the same firm without without practicing rotational farming...And agro-forestry is growing trees on the same land with other crops like for example maize.
21 Apr 2020
I think this is a very interesting question you have asked here. I think this links very well to my last comment. We need to be very careful at the moment on how we balance what we are going to focus on. On the one hand we want to focus on global warming because we don't want the planet to die. On the other hand we need to focus on COVID-19 because otherwise it might lead to deaths all over the world, rising quicker than they are now. Also in one of my previous comments, we discussed about if the coronavirus is earths way of saving itself. Well, is it? I think yes because less people are using public transport and their cars and no one is going to places like cinemas and theatres. So my answer to that question is yes. What do u think? Comment down below your thoughts and ideas. Thanks for reading,
happy_fact
I think you're right
21 Apr 2020
Desertification can be caused by :
1. Deforestation
Deforestation is the act of clearing a forest in an area. When it continues like that, grass grow in place of trees.
2.Over-grazing
The grass that grows in place of the trees stop growing when it is over-grazed.
3.Bush Burning
When the grass is burned regularly, dry climatic conditions set in to prevent any type of vegetation from growing. When this happens, desertification occurs.
PREVENTION
Finally, we can prevent desertification through the following ways.
1.Afforestation
Everyone has a part to play in tree planting exercises. Also, when we cut trees, we must replace them.
2.Encourage controlled grazing
Since over-grazing causes desertification, to prevent this, we have to control over-grazing.Animals should not be allowed to graze anyhow. This will help prevent desertification.
3.Controlled exploitation of forest resources
We have to make laws to control the felling of trees and the use of forest resources as well as forest reserves . Those who break such laws must be severely punished to deter others from doing same.
This is a really thorough and well structured comment, it's really helpful to use headings like you have done because it helps your readers to read your points quickly and clearly. Can you explain a bit more about why we need more trees and plants? What is the connection between more greenery and a reduction in climate change? What happens when we cut down lots of trees?
Yes. Desertification can produce greenhouse gases. This can cause global warming.
Sorry. This was a mistake. This is the real explanation.
Question 1
The reason why we need more trees and plants is because;
Trees take in the carbon gases we breathe out and from factories and industries for photosynthesis and provide us with oxygen which supports both mankind and animals and in our daily activities.
Question 2
The connection between more greenery and a reduction in climate change is;
Trees take in carbon gases so they remove carbon gases from the atmosphere. This action stops the depliction of the ozone layer which seals ultraviolet rays from reaching the Earth and therefore reduces global warming.
Question 3
When we cut down lots of trees, carbon gases accumulates in the atmosphere which deplicts the ozone layer, releasing ultraviolet rays, causing greenhouse effect which increases global warming.
This is an excellent answer, well done! By answering my questions, you have explained the link between your original ideas (about the problems of deforestation) and how they can be solved (by planting more trees). Now I have a much clearer idea about your argument, and because it's so clearly explained it is much more persuasive.
Thank you
21 Apr 2020
Desertification is a very thing.It is bad because it makes the land loses its fertility.The land could have been used for farming in which the landowner could have gain profit from and it would have benefited the whole because people would gain food from it
Sorry but I made some mistakes
Don't worry! You are allowed to make mistakes - thank you for providing your opinion. Can you think of how the workers of the land are affected, as well as the landowners?
21 Apr 2020
Guys, did you know that the Sahara Desert was first a fertile land?
Yes I just googled it
The farmers abandoned the land because of the dry climatic conditions there
21 Apr 2020
Can be prevented by planting of trees and caused by cutting down of trees because the soil will remain bare and dry
21 Apr 2020
Desertification occurs as a result of bush burning, overgrazing,deforestation and Sand winning. This can be prevented by practicing afforestation, avoiding bush burning and also preventing overgrazing of crops by cattles.
22 Apr 2020
Desertification can be prevented planting more trees to favour hydrological cycle that will conserve water and as a result normal condition of the area will be restored.
Is this being done on the scale it needs to be?
Can you tell us what you mean about that?
23 Apr 2020
Desertification is caused by cutting down of trees by people, This is deforestation.
It's also caused by overgrazing of animals
It's also caused by burning bushes which causes forest fires and destroy all the trees in the land leaving it bare and desrted.
It can be prevented by
By planting more trees in diffrent parts of the country,that is afforestation.
By avoiding overgrazing minimising the animals on graze or use of paddocking to graze the animals
Avoid destroying the trees by using it for sell it gives us shelter and attracts more rain.
The government should take the intiative to take action against those who destroy plants that causes soil erosion
24 Apr 2020
Desertification is the process by which fertile land becomes desert-like.
Some of its causes include:
1. Overgrazing
2. Bush burning
3. Over cultivation
4. Misuse of water resources
Its effects include: Soil infertility, famine, food loss, flooding, dust storms etc.
Some ways of minimizing desertification are:
Afforestation
Crop rotation
Mixed cropping
Planting soil-binding grasses
Practising the 3Rs (Reduce, reuse and recycle).
Some places that have faced high levels of desertification are Somalia, Ethiopia, Djibouti, Kenya etc.
24 Apr 2020
This is an excellent answer, well done! By answering my questions, you have explained the link between your original ideas (about the problems of deforestation) and how they can be solved (by planting more trees). Now I have a much clearer idea about your argument, and because it's so clearly explained it is much more persuasive.
11 May 2020
Causes
Desertification can be caused by deforestation, urbanisation, overgrazing, wildfires, erosion, mining and quarrying.
Prevention
*Desertification can be prevented by planting new trees(afforestation). *People have to be educated on the dangers of practising activities that cause desertification. One of the dangers are loss of fertile lands for farming.
*Practising sustainable activities to prevent desertification.
How does quarrying cause desertification?
14 May 2020
Overgrazing is the major cause of desertification worldwide. Other factors that cause desertification include urbanization, climate change, overdrafting of groundwater, deforestation, natural disasters and tillage practices in agriculture that place soils more vulnerable to wind.
What type of natural disasters are you talking about?
18 May 2020
Human activities that contribute to desertification include the expansion and intensive use of agricultural lands, poor irrigation practices, deforestation, and overgrazing. These unsustainable land uses place enormous pressure on the land by altering its soil chemistry and hydrology.
Solutions
Policy Changes Related to How People can Farm. In countries where policy change will actually be enforced on those in the country, policy change related to how often people can farm and how much they can farm on certain areas could be put into place to help reduce the problems that are often associated with farming and desertification.
Policy Changes to Other Types of Land Use. If people are using land to get natural resources or they are developing it for people to live on, then the policies that govern them should be ones that will help the land to thrive instead of allowing them to harm the land further. The policy changes could be sweeping or they could be depending on the type of land use at hand.
And also people can be educated on how to prevent desertification
Please always write in your own words rather than copying from the internet.
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