Encroachment

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    1. Nick . Brooks (71 months ago | reply)

      Not really desertification. Climate change could result in desertification in some parts of the world. However, the southern regions of the Sahara may actually become wetter as a result of the strengthening of the African monsoon (according to climate model projections, backed up - to a point - by analogues with past conditions when the Sahara was wet during periods when the world was warmer). Deserts are dynamic systems whose boundaries fluctuate with variations in rainfall, which are quite normal over periods from years to millennia. A dune encroaching on a settlement may mean simply that the settlement has been built somewhere where normal geomorphological processes lead to high dune mobility. it doesn't necessarily indicate significant climatic or environmental change. This example comes from Western Sahara, where things are pretty dry already. That said, climate change will no doubt result in some parts of the world becoming drier and the remobilisation of due systems if a lack of rainfall leads to the dying off of the vegetation that currently stabilises them. This is predicted to occur this century in parts of southern Africa.

    2. Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research (49 months ago | reply)

      Nice capture

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