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See the original image at physorg.com —

Sahara made slow transition from green to desert

physorg.com — A picture taken by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASAs Terra satelliteon shows dust blowing northward out of the Sahara Desert and over the Mediterranean Sea. The Sahara became the world's biggest hot desert some 2,700 years ago after a very slow fade from green.

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  • guydudeman, on 05/11/2008, -5/+26If only king Taharqa had educated the people of his continent of the dangers of fossil fuels!
  • str3ama, on 05/11/2008, -8/+8well the world's largest desert (the Gobi desert - which spans across Asia) is mostly grassland, the areas of it that touch in to more heavily developed areas of Asia are barren or devoid of plant life - possibly because of pollution but more likely because of a lack of water. Over time water is taken from the bedrock, which doesn't get added back - so it starts to become even more harsh - China has this problem right now - with once very fertile farming areas becoming completely barren.
    • Mannyy, on 05/11/2008, -0/+9gobi desert isnt the largest desert
    • robbiemuffin, on 05/11/2008, -0/+12The world's largest desert is actually the continent of Antarctica; it is the world's driest place. It receives less than two inches of precipitation annually. Antarctica is 5.5 million square miles (14,245,000 square kilometers) in area.

      Outside of polar regions, Northern Africa's Sahara Desert is the world's largest desert at more than 3.5 million square miles (9 million square kilometers).
    • novenator, on 05/11/2008, -0/+2dugg for your explanation of desertification
  • jplily, on 05/11/2008, -9/+0Sahara became the world's biggest hot desert some 2,700 years ago after a very slow fade from green.
  • gotamd, on 05/11/2008, -11/+13I blame global warming.
    • DoctaLivingston, on 05/11/2008, -1/+2I blame lack of water.
    • MtheoryX, on 05/11/2008, -1/+12I blame Xenu.
    • kelmaster1, on 05/11/2008, -5/+3I blame your mom
    • hempydave, on 05/11/2008, -3/+1THAT"S CLIMATE CHANGE WE NEVER SAID Global Warming and your a lier if you remember differently.
      or not
    • GeekyGerge, on 05/11/2008, -0/+1I blame video games.
    • AsylumAleikum, on 05/11/2008, -1/+1It's all Bush's fault!
  • ukembe, on 05/11/2008, -6/+11I heard the The Great Goreacle was on his way to reverse global warming in the region with a mere wave of his hand. Yay!
  • rezy, on 05/11/2008, -1/+3in my opinion all of the news like this follow some politics targets
    • novenator, on 05/11/2008, -0/+1newsflash: pesky scientific facts get in the way of progress. film at 11
  • kalte, on 05/11/2008, -0/+13And now it seems to be going back to green:
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/2267652. ...

    "The driving force behind the retreat of the deserts is believed to be increased rainfall."
    • mijelh, on 05/11/2008, -0/+2Sahara is expanding south as fast as 30 miles per year (http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/185 ... ) in spite of local advances of oasificatión.
      The advances you mention are in the zone of Burkina Faso, which desertification was, by the way, a direct consequence of human activity only 20 years ago. Good farming methods were critical reversing this process, your source says.
  • robbiemuffin, on 05/11/2008, -2/+2I always wondered, what is the best way (playing god here) to geologically fix the problem. Could you just create some massive mountains to cause rivers and weather? Or do you have to lower the land closer to the water table?
    • atact88, on 05/11/2008, -0/+2Shfit some ocean currents, some air currents, relocate a few mountains, tada!
  • AsylumAleikum, on 05/11/2008, -2/+4Not to worry. Soon the greenhouse effect will turn Sahara into a rain forest.
    • tomatensaft, on 05/12/2008, -0/+1No, not necessarily. In fact, it is believed that desertification will take an even greater pace than ever before -- because of "global warming".
  • kelmaster1, on 05/11/2008, -2/+2Thanks for telling me something a lot of people already knew...
  • govsucks, on 05/11/2008, -3/+10You can rest assured that if this started today, people would be trying to "stop it" and blaming capitalism. But don't worry, Al Gore said sea levels would rise 20 feet, soon the Sahara will be a water park.
  • nastronomical, on 05/11/2008, -9/+1Sahara became the world's biggest hot desert some 2,700 years ago after a very slow fade from green.
  • trixterIreland, on 05/11/2008, -1/+4hmm 2700 years ago, that is about the time the southwestern US went through a heating period that largely created the deserts there (per some geologists that are using stalagmites to determine prior weather cycles).

    Almost makes you think that alien technology used back then wasnt as green as it is today.
  • novenator, on 05/11/2008, -2/+3Desertification is one of the most dangerous problems facing our planet. What it translates into a shrinking of the terrestrial biosphere (all the matter that composes life on the land surface). There are 2 causes: the earths natural weather cycles and the impact of agriculture on the land. Not much can be done about the former, when it doesn't rain, colossal irrigation projects are impractical. Something can be done about the latter. Agriculture always displaces an area's ecosystem. The impact can be minimized by simple things like leaving natural areas, not using many chemical fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides, etc., not salting the land, and not hogging up all the water.
    Farming and grazing on fragile land can easily lead to desertification, which is a process that still warrants caution in the lower sahara borderlands. Remember, Iraq was once a lush valley full of irrigated fields fed by the Tigris and Euphrates, but mankinds influence made it what it is today.
  • DeFex, on 05/11/2008, -0/+3It was caused by humans and their goats eating every plant in sight, rather than most other types of animals which are more selective.
    • Hangly, on 05/11/2008, -1/+1Rome's habit of salting fields of people they conquered couldn't have helped.
      Poor Carthage.
  • conceptsti, on 05/11/2008, -0/+1Everyone knows it was global warming
    caused by cavemen lighting fires and farts
  •  

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