desertification

Note that 12 million hecacres of arable land is lost every year from desertification, caused by soil degradation.

Do you happen to know if there are there realistic risks of permanent desertification of the great plains?

This ends with planetary desertification, an anoxic event, or some kind of chaotic flip to a new ice age.

Then add the ocean as a heat reservoir and ocean currents, ground albedo changes due to cover change (snow, desertification, crops...).

Technology and better ecological understanding keep providing us with better methods to fight against desertification.

Soil loss and desertification is generally caused by excessive tillage, not by chemical use.

But basically there is natural desertification and there is accelerated desertification caused by the growth of population (misuse of lands, overuse of farm lands, deforestation, rapid growth of population, etc).

In northern part of China, the government and locals plant trees to slow down and even able to recover lands from desertification.

I guess not all places are like Australia, but those with desertification and ecosystem deprecation will require many trees at once.

It a TED talk about reversing desertification with farming practices.

On the flip side, I do think we should probably migrate some deer populations to those areas seeing desertification to encourage more plant/brush growth.

Well desertification is a very interesting problem.

Nevermind the fact that the "high-yielding, disease-resistant crops" only perform better when doused with biocides and chemicals (which leads to soil loss, contaminates aquifers and other waters, and ultimately leads to desertification).

It takes a special kind of person to look at all the environmental damage we are currently doing to the world (destruction of rainforests, overfishing, rising sea levels, disappearance of coral reefs, desertification, air pollution, soil erosion), and say " more please!