Amy,+Alex,+Kyu's+Group

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=__Desertification of the Sahel__ =

= = Deserts are unproductive, infertile, harsh lands. Not so many people choose to live in them, so some of the African country's large sizes do not account for their population size. A problem arises as this type of landform increases: desertification. Desertification is the spread of the dry conditions of deserts into contiguous areas. The regions that are experiencing this problem include Africa and Latin America. In Africa, the Sahara and Sahel desert is becoming larger and larger as time passes, destroying once-existent forests. Sahel, the "shore of the desert" should not spread anymore, and humans have the power to stop it. Though desertification is nature's long-term cycle, the process is often hastened by human activities that destroy nature.



 __Causes__
Though there are natural causes for desertification, it is human activity that makes it extreme. Such human activities as overgrazing, farming, drilling for water, and burning wood contribute to desertification. Many nomadic tribes rely on their cattle for their living, and their cattle are grazed as they move from place to place. Without controlling the amount the cattle graze, the hungry cattle would often eat too much grass. This is the cause of overgraze, which leaves the grazed land barren. As vegetations of arid land are overgrazed, the plants that usually trapped water and covered the soil decreases. But it is not only animals that destroy vegetation. When people use the arid lands for farming, they clear the lands, expose soil, and use up the soil's nutrients. This causes loss of water and vegetation, and erosion. The land would gradually become too poor for farming and then the farmers would move to another region to clear new land for farming. If the process continues on, more and more land would lose richness and more and more land would become infertile. However farming also brings in another problem: irrigation. Since water is required for successful agriculture, it would be drilled from deep down. This causes further stress on the Sahel, by providing even less water in the already water-scarce area. It would also increase salt levels of the soil around the drilled area thus preventing the growth of vegetation. However the people who do such agriculture for their living are not so rich; they would use wood as fuel to keep themselves warm. All of these activities lead to deforestation, which allows deserts to expand. If this is continued for a lapse of time, Africa's landform would gradually change into a desert.



 __Consequences__
Desertification brings many harmful effects to human lives. It causes people to have less and less arid land for farming and brings change to landform and climate. As developing nations grow their own food, they overfarm and overgraze to keep up with the demand. However such uncontrolled agriculture destroys the soil and drains all the nutrients and water of the farms, making it into a dry, infertile, barren land where no more crops could be grown. As this process persists to continue, the deserts expand and change the landform. Such dry regions as the savanna (dry grasslands) gradually change into barren deserts where not much vegetations could survive. The change of landform also causes the change of climate. Due to the desert's lack of vegetation, dry and hot climate, and low permeability, water is quickly evaporated. Thus precipitation is seldom formed, making the land too dry and hot for farming nor living. Furthermore, the water that Humidity and temperature changes as the landform becomes deserts, and make the land unsuitable for people to live.



 __Solution__
Though there are many methods purposed to stop desertification through planting trees and regulating the regions that are tangent to the deserts (Great Green Wall), the basis of this problem lies on the poverty of people. They seek to overgraze and overfarm because that is the only way they will survive. The solution to this problem would be to help Africans with food and water so that they don't need to overfarm and drill out water from water deprived sources. Once the African nations that adjoin the deserts are provided with stability, they would be able to handle the problems themselves. Rather than to trying to give an immediate solution and temporarily stop it, the global society should view it as a long term project and permanently stop desertification by helping Africa.

__Bibliography__

Eswaran, Hari, Paul Reich, and Fred Beinroth. "Global Desertification Tension Zones."// NRCS Soils //. Web. 01 May 2011. .

Hirji, Zahra. "Stopping Desertification in Africa With a 'Great Green Wall' : Discovery News."// Discovery News: Earth, Space, Tech, Animals, Dinosaurs, History //. 19 June 2010. Web. 01 May 2011. . <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;"> http://hqweb.unep.org/ceh/images/fig10.gif

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;"> http://www.uwsp.edu/geo/faculty/ritter/geog101/textbook/images/lithosphere/eolian/desertification_africa_fao_11638.jpg

=<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">__**Oil pollution in the Nigerian Delta**__ =

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;"> Once considered abundant, oil is now extremely scarce. Humans cannot live without oil. As much as it is needed, oil could also cause a huge problem to the society. Oil spill is an issue commonly dealt throughout the world. Oil spill is mainly caused by human activity such as transporting oil across the oceans, or illegal dumping. Consequences of oil spills are horrendous in a way how humans’ careless mistake can lead to a damage on marine wild life. There is an another factor that we have to face concerning oil spills: it is worldwide. In 2007, Korea also had to face a huge oil spill crisis during the process of transportation of oil which harmed Korea environmentally, and economically. The clean up fee alone was 330 million dollars, and presence of damage on marine life was almost ubiquitous. Such oil spills constantly mark the news headline.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">__Causes__
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;"> Focusing on Nigerian Delta, it has more than 606 wells in the oil field, which gives the title of 6th largest oil producer in the world. Causes of oil spills in this region could merely be narrowed down to corrosion of pipelines, sabotage, etc. The major factor of this whole crisis can be focused upon the corrosion of pipelines. The age of pipelines could be the center of the focus. With a short-term life span of fifteen years, pipelines will be vulnerable to corrosion after the given amount of short period. Pipes in Nigerian Delta are as much as a decade overaged which explains why such oil spills are so common. Due to the poorly maintained infrastructure, undoubtedly, failure of pipes is inevitable. Oil companies in Niger do know the seriousness of this issue and some have admitted huge amount of oil spills that they have caused such as Shell spilling 14,000 tons of oil. Although such confessions could be noted, most have been using other factors as a scapegoat for their fault in maintenance of the pipeline. Poor farmers, fishermen, women, and militants were blamed for such “accident.” One of the huge reason for not having the pipelines could be huge amount of money that each companies need to spend which meant the major concern for them, but this selfishness led to the disaster that the world consider devastating.

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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">__Consequences__
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;"> For us who live in a developed country may see oil spills simply as a crisis that costs money to resolve, but in developing countries where people rely on the environment for their major source of living, it is extremely devastating. People living around the region of Nigerian Delta are surrounded by oil having to eat, drink, and live with oil included. It could be seen as a matter of time where people suffer death by this oil spill. Not only that, the eco system in Nigerian Delta will have to meet its end due to oil spills. As mangrove forests are easily harmed by oil due to their “oil-susceptible” characteristics, mangrove forests were also destroyed in great amount. Areas that contained crops and a nice agricultural grounds become malfunctioning grounds and were no longer usable. Because of greed of the companies in developed nation, people in this area lost their clean and peaceful homes and now have to face health, water, and food problems that the developed nation left them.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">__Solution__
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;"> As most of the oil spills are the creation of humans, it could be morally correct to say that humans, specifically companies in developed nations, to clean up the mess that they have created. It is important for the government where the companies that created this crisis are located to make a policy that requires these companies to create better maintenance system and penalize them if they don’t follow it. Since it is, after all, in the grounds of Nigerian government’s authority, Nigerian government could even set up a policy that expels any companies that do not follow law that the Nigerian government set up. All these are possible solution, but of course, solution that might have a minor difficulties to operate. As time passes, there is a hope of suggestion of a better solution.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">__Bibliography__

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;"> "Niger Delta: Oil spills in perspective." //Black Looks —//. N.p., n.d. Web. 1 May 2011. <http://www.blacklooks.org/2010/05/niger-delta-oil-spills-in-perspective/>.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">__Picture Cited__ <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;"> "Spills in Nigeria Dwarf Gulf Oil Spill Almost Every Year | Global Whisperer." //Global Whisperer - Analysis from around the World//. N.p., n.d. Web. 1 May 2011. <http://www.globalwhisperer.com/2010/06/spills-in-nigeria-dwarf-gulf-oil-spill-almost-every-year/>.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;"> "Yale Environment 360: Oil Fouling the Niger Delta Dwarfs the Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico." //Yale Environment 360: Opinion, Analysis, Reporting & Debate//. N.p., n.d. Web. 1 May 2011. <http://e360.yale.edu/content/digest.msp?id=2496>.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;"> "Shell returning to the Nigerian Delta." //theweave//. N.p., n.d. Web. 1 May 2011. < http://students.stlawu.edu/theweave/index.php?option=com_myblog&show=Shell-returning-to-the-Nigerian-Delta-.html&Itemid=32>

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;"> "Stakeholder Democracy Network." //Stakeholder Democracy Network//. N.p., n.d. Web. 1 May 2011. <http://www.stakeholderdemocracy.org/where-we-work.htm>.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;"> "Nigeria: Petroleum, Pollution and Poverty in the Niger Delta - Zunia.org." //Zunia.org//. N.p., n.d. Web. 1 May 2011. <http://zunia.org/post/nigeria-petroleum-pollution-and-poverty-in-the-niger-delta/>.

=<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">__**The Aswan Dam**__ =

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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">__Causes__
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;"> The Aswan Dam is one of the largest embankment dam built across the Nile River in Aswan, Egypt. The name, Aswan Dam commonly refers to the High dam and it's main function is to control the flood waters. Before the Aswan Dam was built, the Nile River flooded every year during the summer time which made the water flow down the valley from its East African drainage basin. This water flow made it possible for the land to be fertile with natural nutrients and minerals which eventually suited to be a good farmland. The people in Egypt needed to protect and support these farmlands from the flood because floods vary from high-water where it can wipe out everything and to low-water where it brings drought.

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<span style="font: 120%/21px 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; letter-spacing: 0px; margin: 0px;">__**Consequences**__

====<span style="font: 120%/19px 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; letter-spacing: 0px; margin: 0px;">There are number of environmental and social impacts that Aswan Dam brought to the location and the people. It has brought both positive and negative effects to Egypt. Now they can prevent floods and supply farmers with regular supply of water. It also increased Egypt’s farmland by 50%, and allowed Egypt farmers to have multiple harvests per year. However it also had its downfalls. First, it brought resettlement of the Nubian population in the area, which changed their lifestyles. Secondly, The rich deposits of silt has also disappeared, forcing Egypt’s farmers to adopt expensive artificial fertilizers and field drains. Finally it brought health issues: Malaria and other diseases increased in large number. The still water of the Lake Nassar and irrigation canals allow mosquitoes to thrive and spread disease. Though the Dam had brought light to some farmers, it also has a dark shadow behind. ====

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">__Solution__
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;"> This issue is extremely complicated in a way that there aren’t many solution that could solve this phenomenon right away. Getting rid of the dam is too costly, and too extreme in a way that could be a harsh solution. It is important for this dam to be limited to where it is placed right now, meaning no more development of this dam in terms of size. The best possible solution, yet still a difficult solution to accomplish could be coming up with a new energy source other than the dam that matches the positive benefits that the dam gives, eliminating all the negative side of the dam. Again, it is emphasized that any solution could be considered extreme that is hard to accomplish. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">__Picture Cited__

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;"> "High Dam" Web. 2008. <http://www.welcome2aswan.com/highdam.htm>

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;"> "Aswan Dam" Web. 2011. <http://www.answers.com/topic/aswan-dam>

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;"> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:BarragemAssu%C3%A3o.jpg>