"The Earth's Spreading Desert"

More than one third of the earth's land is desert very hot, dry and difficult to live in. Today, the earth's, deserts are spreading and getting larger. In some countries, the farm land along the edges of the desert is turning into desert too. Why is it happening? What can be done to save productive land?

1. Only a generation ago, Mauritania's capital city was many days' walk from the Sahara. Today it is in the Sahara. The sand blows through the city streets and piles up against walls and fences. The desert stretches out as far as the eye can see.

2.In some parts of the Amazon rain forest in Brazil, all the trees have been cut down. The earth lies bare and dry in the hot sun. Nothing grows there anymore.

3.Over vast areas of every continent, the rainfall and vegetation necessary for life are disappearing. Already more than 40 percent of the earth's land is desert or desert-like. About 628 million people one out of seven live in these dry regions. In the past, they have managed to survive, but with difficulty. Now, largely through problems caused by modern life, their existence is threatened by the slow, steady spread of the earth's deserts.

4. Many countries first became concerned in the 1970 after a, terrible drought and famine destroyed Africa's Sahel, the fragile desert along the south edge of the Sahara. Thousands of people died even though there was a world wide effort to send food and medicine to the starving people.

5.Draughts and crop failures are not new in desert regions. They have been a fact of life for thousands of years. However, few people lived in desert regions in the past. They kept few animals, and they moved frequently. Today's problems are caused in great parts by distinctly modern factors. In the Sahel, for example, Africans benefited from improvements in public health and modern farming methods. New water wells encouraged people to settle down on the land near the wells. The populations grew. Farmers planted more crops and enlarged their herds of cattle, sheep and goats. They became dependent on the new wells. When the drought came, the crops failed and the cattle ate all the grass around the overworked wells. The fragile land quickly lost its topsoil and became nothing but sand and dust.

6. Many countries are experiencing similar problems. Poor land is farmed until it is worn out, and trees are cut for firewood, leaving the soil unprotected against wind and rain. In Penu, Chile and Brazil, some areas that once were covered with forests now look like the moon. In India, some land has been so badly damaged by farming and tree cutting that mud now slides into the Indus and Ganges rivers. Cattle, sheep and goats add to the problem by eating grass and other plants faster than they can grow back. In the United State, some highly populated areas (such as Los Angeles) are really deserts. Water must be piped in from hundreds of miles away - and this affects the water supply of other California communities.

7. Scientists still do not understand all the complex problems of the desert, but there have been many ideas for saving the land. Saudi Arabia has planted 10 million trees to help keep the sand from taking over fertile areas. The Israelis are again using some of the water collection systems left by the ancient peoples in the Negev desert. They plan to water their orchards with the extra water. Some Sahel farmers still raise cattle on their poor farm land, but before the cattle are sold, they are taken to greener lands in the south to get fat.

8. The spread of the deserts affects most countries. The big question today is, how can an expanding world population find food and space without destroying the land it lives on? For many countries, battling the desert is the only chance to avoid starvation, destruction and disaster.