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2007-03-24 16:26:47 · 7 answers · asked by Anonymous in Environment

7 answers

wow i asked my teacher that same question

thats why people do crop rotation to not use all the minerals in the soil
they also are trying irrigation
over grazing is causing desertification too

2007-03-24 16:36:30 · answer #1 · answered by Do You Feel 3 · 0 0

I think we need to learn- that when we take something FROM nature, we have to put something BACK. If forests are cut down to make way for houses or parking lots- then they should be REPLANTED somewhere else. Fallow lands that go unplanted or unused (abandoned farms, empty lots, roadsides & highway medians) should be planted with native species. Flat roofs can grow mini gardens or parks; while slanted ones can hold solar panels that'll reduce the use of oil. (And ALL this can be done simply by adding it to the "start-up cost" of the Highway projects, housing developments, & industrial development in an area... It would be a "replace as we build" concept). It won't completely solve the problem of World Desertification, but it would be a responsible start... :)

2007-03-24 23:52:26 · answer #2 · answered by Joseph, II 7 · 0 0

DESERTIFICATION

Almost all the Desserts on this planet result from human intervention.
the Building of the Spanish Armada deforrested Spain
the Phoenician trading fleet turned Lebanon in a dessert
Ganges Khan put everything to the sword and torch, then filled the wells with sand,
the sun finished of the job and whole countries turned to wastelands.
He would have been envious of the effects of modern day farming.

Slash and burn destroys the protective vegetation (which helps to form the soil ),
leaving it open to the Sun ,and then ,wind and, water erosion.
The Plough turns the soil ,killing micro-biotic life (essential to soil building) and accelerates the drying out .
Pressures of the :vehicles, cattle and rain impact brings the salt to the surface.

Mono cultures ,aided by chemicals Exhaust and pollutes the soil .
Adding to this the effects of overgrazing has resulted in large scale desertification.

Each year billions of tons of topsoil are blown or washed away by storms.
Arable lands and their farms are lost all over the globe. Many farmers sons abandon farming and head for the cities.

Northern China is drying up, what once were millions of food producing people,
are now hungry refugees ,running for their lives from the all consuming dust storms.

some solutions

SOIL PRESERVATION AND DESERTIFICATION

the first concept to prevent desertification is always to conserve the trees and to maintain moisture ,which can be enhanced by waterharvesting ,

which simply means to catch and retain any rain fall that happens in that place by building as many dams as is possible, and so efectively turn the place into a sponge .

the water will not always be visible ,but all the same is absorbed by the ground ,and is now moving at a much slower speed ,sometimes taking months to leave the area before it ends up in subteranean water deposits or helps feed the streems and rivers , meantime your trees have been using it.

a tree builds its own soil ,in its life time,by the leaves it discards ,--we improve on that by mulching

MULCH
cut down the weeds before they produce seeds and leave them where they fall,they will cover the ground and put even more organic matter on top,you can use saw dust,leaves green or dry,and when you plant make a little space and plant in the mulch.

this is the easiest quickest and by far most benificial way(for the quality of your soil)to prepare the land for planting

what you do is to cover the ground with mulch which is the same principal as compost but it includes the whole garden surface
the top part of the soil where the topsoil is being produced houses a world or microbiotic life.

Mulch is organic material green or dry that covers the ground,the thicker the better the composting process will turn it in to black topsoil
an exelent mulch is forgotten or old bales of whatever ,straw or hay or alphalfa

the humidity is preserved underneath and promotes the devellopment of worms(their exists no better compost than their excrements)and a variety of micro biotic life which together with the mulch produce more topsoil.

the mulch also keeps the ground temperature even and guards against the impact of the rain ,which would other wise brings salt to the surfave if on unprotected land

Mulch also prevents the soil from drying out because of the sun and, lay it open to wind erosian.

do not use chemicals because the water will wash them into the ground and if enough people did that, you would be guilty of helping to contaminate subteranean water suplies that other people could be pumping up to drink

PERMACULTURE
the designers Manual by Bill Mollisin has a large section on dryland strategies,which are many ideas that have been applied in the sahara and in Nevada. cost about 40 dollars.
and is the best all round book you can get.(tagiari publishing, tagariadmin@southcom.com.au)

Permaculture means permanent agriculture
a concept put forward by Bill Mollisson in the 60`s
some other writers that are on the internet are
david Holmgren
Larry Santoyo
Kirk Hanson

Masanobu Fukuaka has written ,
One-Straw Revolution
The Road Back to Nature
The Natural Way of Farming
http://www.context.org/iclib/ic14/fukuok...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/masanobu_fu...

Simon Henderson
and Bill Molisson.

a representitive of the concept in USA is
Dan Hemenway at YankeePerm@aol.com
barkingfrogspc@aol.com
http://barkingfrogspc.tripod.com/frames....
http://csf.colorado.edu/perma/ypc_catalo...
there is a University of Permaculture in Australia

I am a permaculture consultant for the department of Ecology for the regional government of Guerrero in Mexico
http://spaces.msn.com/byderule

2007-03-25 03:02:21 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0 0

1. Don't cut down too many trees.

2. Plant wind-break trees around land that is easily disturbed by wind and weather elements.

3. Responsible farming practice.

2007-03-24 23:30:24 · answer #4 · answered by Loulabelle 4 · 0 0

Birth control for the Third world!!!!!

2007-03-24 23:30:59 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0 0

since most of the world's deserts are created by the climatic changes on the planet, not much you can do except on a small scale, via large scale irrigation.

2007-03-24 23:29:54 · answer #6 · answered by A Military Veteran 5 · 1 0

stop over-farming the land

2007-03-24 23:28:58 · answer #7 · answered by Ryan : 1 · 0 0

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