By: Madison Brown and Noelle Alston Desertification By: Madison Brown and Noelle Alston

Intro Hi! I’m Alessia and I’m here to talk to you about what desertification is and how to fight it.

Causes Desertification is the process by which land becomes more and more dry until it turns into desert. This may be caused by climate change, human activities or both.

More Causes Desertification can by caused by climate changes such as erosion and droughts.

Causes Desertification can also be caused by human activities such as mining, urban sprawl, logging, ranching and most importantly farming. Farming contributes to desertification because people farm on the marginal land (land that is not well suited for growing crops) that weakens the vegetation as well as the soil more, the grazing animals eat the little vegetation left until all of it is gone and the is stripped of the nutrients it needs. People will leave and carry this process with them.

Fighting It The process of desertification can be slowed down with the right preparations and preventions. The climate changes can’t be altered but the human activities can. Human activities will have to be controlled or maintained by having crop rotations – where the farming is done at different locations in a cycle– slowing down and lessening the effects desertification, doing their farming in an oases instead of the marginal land and/or re-forestation where we’d bring fertile soil to the desert and plant new vegetation.

Conclusion Desertification is a serious problem that is not getting any smaller, only bigger! All or most parts of Earth’s deserts are between 40 degrees north and 40 degrees south, especially in Asia, Africa and Australia. Did you know that 1/3 of the world has an arid climate not to mention the 250M+ at risk. So please consider these ideas so that you can save your future!

Extra Fun Fact: Europe is the only continent with no desert, but it does have some marginal land so it’s slowly developing one though. REALLY BRO