Memory of Mankind: All of Human Knowledge Buried in a Salt Mine

Re:Memory of Mankind: All of Human Knowledge Buried in a Sal... by the8472 on Friday January 20, 2017 @11:05AM (#13444725)

First of all: correlation != causation. People do live in semi-arid regions bordering on deserts, so if the local climate was even slightly better than it is today people would have lived there and as things changed they would have given up settlements. People living there previously is not proof of them causing desertification.

Also roads going through deserts does not prove much since they could just connect oasis or move goods across the desert without people living within it.

The Sahara itself also is fairly old[0]. Of course its total extent is variable and subject to natural and man-made climate change and other human influence. But there is a huge difference between human activity creating a desert and influencing its extent or aridity.

Most deserts are naturally created through the rain shadow[1] and other precipitation-reducing effects of geographic features.

[0] https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Zhongshi_Zhang/publicat... [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rain_shadow

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Re:Memory of Mankind: All of Human Knowledge Buried in a Sal... by JoeAltmaier on Friday January 20, 2017 @11:12AM (#13444778)

Regions get less rain because of rain shadow. They can become deserts because of removal of water-conserving ground cover. Its a delicate balance, and wholesale deforestation or grazing can unbalance it with effects lasting for thousands of years.

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Re:Memory of Mankind: All of Human Knowledge Buried in a Sal... by the8472 on Friday January 20, 2017 @01:46PM (#13445971)

So you're saying that the majority of the world's deserts only exist due to human activity?

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