RECIPE FOR A DESERT

Much of the following data was gleaned from The Third Revolution, by Paul Harrison, and from The World Watch Reader. Paul Harrison's book should be required reading in our high schools.

Man clears the fertile valleys and gentle slopes for cultivation.

He uses the animal protein, fruit, nuts, roots, fuel, medicinal plants, fibres, building materials and honey of the forest as a supplement to his cultivated diet, and to sustain his family.

He allows his fields to remain uncultivated every few years to renew fertility and productivity.

The population increase is minimal as he and his wife, or wives, have high fertility but also a high death rate.

Disease is eventually conquered to a great degree; the birth rate remains high, and longevity is increased.

He divides his holdings to accommodate his offspring's needs.

They can no longer fallow the fields, because of the increased need for food and so its productiveness declines.

His offspring move up the slopes and clear more land.

They irrigate to increase productivity, causing the salts to rise in the soil which eventually reduces yields.

The water table starts to drop, and wells must be made deeper.

They use chemicals and fertilizer to increase yields, and in the process they contaminate their own and their neighbours water supply.

Their offspring beget, sire, propagate, breed and multiply, with no decrease in live births.

Cities grow and grow, eating into the best agricultural land, forcing the farmers onto even more marginal land.

They once used the dead and fallen branches to cook their meals, but now they must cut trees, as there is no longer enough fuel for their needs.

The forest is reduced further and animal and plant diversity is diminished or exterminated.

They raise more and more animals on the land that will no longer grow crops.

The crop residues, that were originally turned back into the soil, are eaten by the animals or burned.

The animals denude the land of all but the most undesirable brush and weeds.

There are reduced materials for shelter.

As the wood supply decreases further, they resort to using animal dung for fuel.

The remaining top soil blows away, taking the organic material, and trace elements, and further reduces the fertility and yield.

The soil from the hills, that has taken thousands of years form, is washed away in a few seasons in the runoff.

The suns radiation is reflected back into space as the texture and colour of the earth changes.

The range in atmospheric pressures and temperatures over this area become greater and greater.

Rainfall is diminished as the denuded areas spread further and further afield.

The reduction ofrain and thunder storms also reduce the resultant contribution of nitrogen to the soil.

The evapotranspiration process declines without renewed ground moisture and plants and foliage-cover decrease even further.

The desertification process accelerates because of its own reality.

Soil is compacted, life in the soil dies, and deserts grow and grow.

Soil and sand cover adjacent land and smother crops beyond the edges of the new desert.

Even the dead want their plot in the best agricultural land, thereby depriving the people of a little more cultivable space.

Is it now time we stopped looking at soil as being 'dirt cheap' and started to consider it a precious commodity?

You really didn't think that recycling your 'Bud' cans was all that was necessary, did you? (That's another subject, however.)

Have a nice day.