Read at :

http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/science_technology/The_creeping_disease_that_threatens_populations.html?cid=36153724

Turning to dust

The creeping disease that threatens populations

by Luigi Jorio, swissinfo.ch

For the past 20 years, more and more countries have been affected by desertification – and not just because of climate change. Experts say that some agricultural practices have also had disastrous effects.

It’s not the desert on the move but farming land that is slowly disappearing, contrary to what most people believe.

“The mental picture we have is one of a sandy desert and dunes swallowing up villages and fields,” Gudrun Schwilch, a researcher at the University of Bern’s Centre for Development and Environment, told swissinfo.ch. “But in most cases, it’s just not like that.”

According to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), desertification is “the degradation of land in arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid areas. It is caused primarily by human activities and climatic variations”. Altogether, these regions represent 40…