Description of the desertification crisis in Africa

Essay by kongCollege, UndergraduateA+, October 2008

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Controlling the DesertChanging the makeup of a continent’s lands can be devastating for the people that live there. The threat of famine because of a different climate that in unable to yield the amount of food necessary for the people to maintain their populations is one of the greatest problems associated with those sorts of changes. When a land once vital for people to feed their families begins to turn into desert, the people of the land are threatened. Scientists are attempting to look at why the desert in Africa appears to be expanding and what may be done to oppose the degradation of the land. International organizations and states realize the seriousness of the issue, and have held conferences and done research to explore the roots of the growing desert.

The least developed countries in Africa are the ones that face the greatest danger from their lands turning into desert.

More developed countries are wealthier and will not be as affected by a change. Some of the poorer states have an annual income that is just fractions of what the more advanced states are earning. Desertification may prevent the less developed states from ever developing and becoming a player in the globalized world. If they cannot afford to feed themselves, one can hardly expect them to be building an infrastructure and improving their economy. When a continent is already in hundreds of billions in debt, changing the landscape may cripple them forever (UN 1993).

Africa is a place where almost the entire population relies on the land in some fashion in order to make money for their families. It is almost the opposite of places like the United States where very few people provide for many. There is not enough of the infrastructure set up in many places in...