Daily Concept #4: Desertification & Drought

Welcome to the fourth edition of The Daily Concept, the newsletter that introduces you to a new idea, every day.

If I twisted your arm into signing up for my newsletter over the weekend, you can check out the newsletters I wrote last week on:

• The Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) and the International Brigades of foreigners who went to Spain to fight.
   

• Hedge Funds, Private Equity firms, the Private Funds industry.
   

• Period Poverty and what governments are doing to address it.

Desertification & drought

Rising global temperatures threaten to turn up to 75% of Spain into desert. The concept of desertification has been defined as “the process by which natural or human causes reduce the biological productivity of drylands (arid and semiarid lands)” and turn them into deserts.

Climate change is a key component of desertification, and UNESCO estimates that up to a third of the Earth’s landmass will be threatened by desertification in the coming century.

Outside of climate change itself, researchers have identified six major causes of desertification:

• Overgrazing

• Deforestation

• Unsustainable farming practices

• Excessive drafting of groundwater

• Urban development

• Fertilizer and pesticide use
  

South America, which is currently dealing with 100°F temperatures in the middle of winter, is also threatened by desertification. José Miguel Torrico of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) said:

“the annual costs of land degradation are estimated for Latin America and the Caribbean at 60 billion dollars per year.”

What can be done to address desertification?

Farmer and sustainable agriculture researcher Allan Savory has advocated for holistic grazing as a solution to desertification.

Savory gave a TED Talk on the topic in 2013:

How are governments adapting to a drier world?

Governments will increasingly rely on desalination as a source of clean drinkable water as wells and rivers dry up. Barcelona’s desalination plant, which was barely used in the years following its construction in 2009, is now generating 500 gallons of fresh water per second.

While dry countries in the Arab Gulf have been using desalination to secure fresh water for years, nations in and around the Mediterranean Sea are increasingly looking to desalination as a lifeline in a drying world.

The governments of Spain, Algeria, Israel, and Italy have all invested in desalination facilities and the pipelines needed to transport fresh water from plants to people's homes in recent years, and it is likely that the trend will continue as we progress further into the 21st century.

ART OF THE DAY

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Dan