This blog post is a response to an article by the Guardian
and tries to answer the question: ‘Desertification
is not an issue that affects the UK – discuss’
Source: Chris Madden |
Experts estimate that 50 million people could be displaced due to desertification in the next ten years. These people will become environmental refugees who need housing elsewhere, many of whom will settle in the UK. This puts new strains on natural resources and the social fabric of nearby societies. This unsustainable movement of people could threaten international stability.
Every year 6 million
hectares of agricultural land are lost to land degradation. By 2050, experts suggest the world will need an additional
120 million hectares (an area the size of South Africa) of agricultural land to
support the required food production. Each year we are losing valuable land to
desertification which could be used to meet food production demands. This is
leading to a rise in food prices and, since 2000, the prices of staples such as
of meat, dairy, cereals and sugar have doubled; this is often the result of
degrading land and expensive farming techniques such as the use of artificial fertilisers.
Desertification reduces food security in UK and the rest of the
world. Britain is not self-sufficient in food production; it imports 40% of the
total food consumed and this proportion is rising. Environmental impacts such
as desertification can cause food price spikes such as those seen around the
world in 2008. In developing countries, efforts to increase agricultural production often leads to deforestation, a major contributor to global greenhouse gas emissions. This only worsens the problem as deforested soils are very thin and become degraded within a few years.
In my opinion, desertification in countries
around the world does affect the UK. If we continue to lose land to
desertification at the current rate, we can expect to see a rise in food
prices, deforestation for cash crops and migration of people from countries at
risk from desertification, to those that are not. It may be expensive, but
halting land degradation is in everyone’s best interests, so we can reduce the
impacts of desertification on our own lives and the lives of others.
To read the full article by the Guardian that this blog post
responds to visit: http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/may/12/climate-change-expert-stern-displacement