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From Mesopotamia to the Nile Valley: Soil Degradation and Desertification
Desertification has many definitions, encompassing both the physical and social consequences of the transformation of land into desert-like conditions. In all cases, the impacts of human activity are indelibly linked to desertification. In 1977, the United Nations Conference on Desertification proposed a definition:
"Desertification is the diminution or destruction of the biological potential of the land, and can lead ultimately to desert-like conditions. It is an aspect of widespread deterioration of ecosystems, and has diminished or destroyed the biological potential, i.e., plant and animal production, for multiple use purposes at a time when increased productivity is needed to support growing populations in quest of development." (Mainguet, 1994, 3)
In addition, Monique Mainguet cites Kates et al. (1977) as noting that, "Unlike drought, which is usually a short-term diminution of available moisture, the physical processes involved in desertification are long-term, chronic, and pervasive" (1994, 2).
Mainguet considers "soil deterioration as the most critical component of land degradation and, in the framework of irreversible land degradation, as the main factor of desertification" (1994, p. 151). Soil degradation "is expressed as water and wind erosion, salinization, loss of soil fertility, and soil compaction" (Dregne, 1985, p. 19). Changes to the physical, chemical and biological properties of soil may bring severe famine to a previous fertile area. Desertification has destroyed past civilizations, such North Mesopotamia, and is currently degrading vulnerable lands around the world, such as the Nile Valley of Egypt.
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Hulme, Mike and Kelly, Mick, 1993, Exploring the Links Between Desertification and Climate Change: Environment (St. Louis), v. 35: 6, p. 4-11.
Kishk, M. A., 1986, Land Degradation in the Nile Valley: Ambio, v. 15, p. 226-230.
Mainguet, Monique, 1994, Desertification: Natural Background and Human Mismanagement: New York, Springer-Verlag, 314 p.
Mitchell, D. J. and Fullen, M. A., 1994, Soil-Forming Processes on Reclaimed Desertified Land in North-Central China: In Millington, Andrew C., and Pye, Ken, eds., 1994, Environmental Change in Drylands: New York, John Wiley and Sons, p. 393-412.
Sabadell, J. Eleonora, et al., 1982, Desertification in the United States: Washington, D. C., U. S. Government Printing Office, 277 p.
Weiss, H., et al., 1993, The Genesis and Collapse of Third Millennium North Mesopotamian Civilization: Science, v. 261, p. 995-1004.
Shaw, H. J. (2006), Food Deserts: Towards the Development of a Classification. Geografiska Annaler: Series B, Human Geography, 88: 231–247.
...ding to perfectly establish And Then There Were None. And Then There Were None is considered to be Agatha Christie’s greatest work. It is popular and will continue to be popular because it captures the readers with its appeal to a large age group; ease of understanding; and a perfect execution of the context and plot. And Then There Were None is pure justification for why Agatha Christie is called “The Queen of Mystery.”
Phobias have been in existence for many years. Phobias date back to the works of Hippocrates, a prehistoric Greek physician (Korgeski, 2009). The works of Hippocrates are still debated today. In The Seventh Book of Epidemics, one of the publications by Hippocrates, he studied an individual and he interpreted a condition that the person portrayed. The results of the observation were that the individual was petrified of the sound of a flute, if he wasn’t intoxicated. He noticed the individual was fine during the day listening to the flute but during the night hours everything was different (Korgeski, 2009). From this observation and the work of Hippocrates helped contribute to the creation of term phobia. The word phobia was formulated from a Greek god. Phobus, the son of Ares, means panic and fear (Atsma, 2000). The term phobia was used to describe psychological problems and it was used discreetly in the 1800s.
Dry lands is a previous stage into what can develop the atrocity of desertification. These plains of ground lack moisture. These areas lose it either to evaporation or by transpiration of plants. Generally the land that is considered dry lands is still used by primitive technologies within herding and farming. This weak land is put on even l...
Imagine a typical farmer tending his cattle and harvesting his crops, a harmless act. His land is green and fertile, and the beautiful view stretches on forever. Now, conceptualize that healthy land morphing into dehydrated sand...a desert. It is nearly impossible for vegetation and humans, such as this farmer, to survive and thrive on land that receives less than three inches of rainfall each year. Unfortunately, this is not a fiction scenario. Deserts are growing at about twenty thousand square miles every year (Roos). Is that hard to envision? This means some twenty thousand square miles of land is becoming dried up and unusable every single year. What is the cause of all this? The answer is desertification. What exactly is desertification? Desertification can be understood by knowing what it is, how it is caused, where it happens most around the world, and what can be done to prevent it.
The Desert's, Oasis', and Sahel's environment of Sahara determine how people in that area survive. The Sahara desert has one of the harshest environments in the world. The Oasis has so many living things that could not survive without it, including humans. And finally, the Sahel which may not be as bad as the Sahara but still shapes the way some humans live. In order for humans like us to survive, they have to adapt, to survive on any resource they can get and use.
Phobias are immense and unreasonable fears of certain situations or objects. Phobias endure for long periods of time. Phobias cause intense physical and psychological reactions, and can affect things that people do in their everyday lives. A phobia is a type of anxiety disorder, since anxiety is the main symptom experienced by the sufferer. Phobias can form from many different things. According to the Mayo Clinic(2017) Phobias come from negative experiences, genetic and environmental and factors as well as brain function. Numerous phobias are triggered by having a negative experience or panic attack identified with a particular question or circumstance. For genetic and environmental factors, one can learn what to be afraid of by simply seeing
Desertification is the degradation of lands in dry area, not the expansion of existing deserts. Natural deserts occur because of high pressure zones or due to “rain shadow effects” both products of atmosphere interacting with geography; however modern desertification is result of degrading lands due to human use. Desertification primarily occurs in arid regions as precipitation is already sparse making any other disturbance, such as over cultivation, amplified. Alan Grainger in his book states that the scientific community considers this issue “the decline in biological productivity or production potential are characteristic of a long-term process of degradation, rather than a simple short-term decline in the level of production that commonly occurs during drought” (15), however the books believes this definition is not intense enough to capture the severity of desertification. The term itself confuses people into thinking that desertification is the expansion and possible natural expansion, of deserts. The driest lands of Africa in the Sahara tend to be suited for little other than nomadic livestock, as regular agriculture is unequipped to handle anything less than 350 mm of rainfall.
Phobias not only affect people’s lives personally and socially but it also affects them physically and mentally. Phobias can
This paper is a two-part essay involving the hydrologic cycle and a desert landscape. First, the paper will discuss the hydrologic cycle and apply it to where I live, east Tennessee. Next, the paper will focus on a desert landscape. The discussion will center on how a desert forms as well as the features found within the landscape.
The researchers state in the article that “nearly no area of the world is free” from the risk of climate change transforming landscapes substantially, unless mitigation limits warming to around 2 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels.
World Ecology Repert (Spring 2009), SPECIAL FOCUS: Desertification: Its Effects on People and Land http://worldinfo.org/wp-content/uploads/library/wer/english/2009_Spring_Vol_XXI_no_1.pdf
Exclusive of the largest mountain ranges and oceans, earth’s most well-known physical features are its great desert regions. The word desert often conjures up ideas of open expanses of sand and towering dunes blown by perpetual wind and dust storms. Moreover, deserts are often categorized as being strictly sandy, hot, and extremely dry. Only part of this assumption is correct. Furthermore, the categorizing of deserts as such illustrates how little knowledge many people in fact have of desert regions of the earth.
It is estimated that more than 40% of the general population suffers from one or more fear of a specific object or situation (Williams 1987). If a fear becomes excessive or unreasonable it is termed a phobia. Phobias can lead to significant impairment in daily life (Vigerland 2013). Specific phobia is an anxiety disorder that is defined as an unreasonable or irrational fear that has a negative impact on daily living, having a life-time prevalence rate of over 10%, specific phobias are the most prevalent group of mental disorders Five main categories are distinguished: animal type, natural environment type, situational type, blood-injury-injection type, and other type (Van Houtem 2013). The subtypes of specific phobia differ greatly in terms of prevalence, sex distribution, and age of onset (Burnstein 2012). The development of specific phobia can be best understood by the classical conditioning model; the paring of a conditioned stimulus with an unconditioned stimulus which automatically evokes a fear response (e.g. Watson & Rayner 1920). Conditioning theory states that objects and situations that are irrationally feared resemble previous distressing experiences (Van Houtem 2013). For a number of specific phobias other factors, including genetic susceptibility (see Van Houtem 2013), may play a role in the development of specific phobias. Specific phobias can be treated a number of ways, the most effective being one session treatments (Ollendick &Davis 2013) and Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (see Vigerland 2013).
Dregne, H. E. "DESERTIFICATION OF ARID LANDS." Physics of Dersertification (1986). Ciesin.columbia.edu. Web. 16 Nov. 2013.