Deserts are Man Made

The Sahara

The Past:

Man in the current genetic form evolved on this earth some 200,000 years ago in Africa, where the current Sahara desert is found. Then, after spreading over the regions which are now the deserts of Egypt, Libya, Sudan, etc., he came out of the African continent and established the ancient civilizations of Mesopotamia, Indus Valley, Yellow River Valley of China, in addition to the Egyptian civilization. Most of  these sites of ancient civilizations are now desert lands. After those ancient civilizations, the two major religions of the world, Christianity and Islam, also evolved in the regions that are now the deserts of present-day Israel and Saudi Arabia. Human activity since the ancient ages, right from Man’s origin, was in areas which are now deserts in spite of them being on the river valleys. It is extremely unnatural to have deserts on the banks of such vast rivers. Wherever we humans have lived in large numbers, we have turned those lands into deserts! The map below and this very earth is clear proof for this serious allegation on Mankind. 

Ancient Civilization Locations

Historically Man has exploited the natural resources for his convenience. He has cut the trees to burn and build, thereby extinguishing micro fauna; he has mined the sand and driven the rivers to go underground; hunted and killed the mega fauna; reduced life to almost zero and has moved on, leaving the deserts behind.

It is extremely unnatural to have deserts on the banks of such vast rivers. Wherever we humans have lived in large numbers in the past, we have turned those lands into deserts!

The Present (It is Worse):

Unfortunately, this is not the case with ancient days alone. Over the last 500 years, forest cover on the earth has been reduced by 80 percent. Even more pertinently, across the last four decades alone, human population has doubled, but the number of bugs, beetles, worms and butterflies (micro fauna) has declined by 45%, says Rodolfo Dirzo, a professor of biology at Stanford University. It is as if we simply have a license to kill.Vegetation and micro fauna is the base for the rest of life on this earth. If there are no micro fauna, the birds will starve to death, and without vegetation the mega fauna that feed on it and their predators shall perish. Deforestation and defaunation are the first signs of desertification and Desertification is a process parallel to the extinction of life. Now there is every possibility that soon most of the earth will be in deserts. This can happen quite soon.The present day population is at least a hundred times the population of the period of the ancient civilizations of Egypt, Mesopotamia, etc., referred to earlier and today’s methods of agriculture are even more destructive for the natural flora and fauna, and their destruction is happening at a much faster scale.

At a tangible scale:

While life on earth came to this earth 3.6 billion years ago, it is just over the last 2, 00,000 years that Man has evolved. On another scale, if we consider the time since the evolution of life till date as one year, then in that scale Man has evolved just 30 minutes ago, the 500 years that has seen 80% deforestation is 4.35 seconds, and the last four decades that has seen 45% loss of micro fauna is just 0.35 seconds. The destruction is clearly exponential and tending to become instantaneous in the time scale of the universe. It is as if Man is a huge meteor that has hit this earth.

Repeated extinctions:

Earth has faced extinction of life five times through these mass extinctions: 

1. The Cretaceous-Tertiary

2.Triassic-Jurassic

3. The Permian 

4. The Late Devonian; and 

5. The Ordovician-Silurian.  

Life has come back each time. The next mass extinction, if proper care is not taken, will be #6. Manmade and we will not know if this kind of life can come back.

However, there is a brighter side, too. Man, with his enormous intelligence, has accumulated vast knowledge and survival skills. Man has developed advanced technologies that can be put to work both ways that is to help life survive or make it perish.

This writer has been involved in the process of forestation as a profession for the last twenty years, and this is a report on the efforts made in the process, the results obtained, and his humble thoughts on how to reverse the ongoing desertification of this earth.

Reversal of desertification:

The clear signs of reversal of desertification will be:

1.      Increase in the ratio of fresh water to sea water, leading to more rains and bigger rivers.

2.      Increase in flora through forestation.

3.      Enhancement of fresh water resources and rising of the groundwater level.

4.      Arresting of the process of depletion and even extinction of various species of fauna.

5.      Arresting the increase of certain species like rodents and the disease carrying ectoparasites.

And how:

Desertification can be reversed by applying these basic principles:

1.      Among the three foundations of the French revolution that has boosted this modern civilization, LIBERTY is over exploited.

2.      Man is not the owner of this earth and has no right to destroy vegetation and micro fauna.

3.      Land owner should not have the freedom to do anything that he wishes with the land.

4.      The land that is under agriculture should be reduced at least by a half.

5.      Irrigation and modern technology should be used for forest growth also.

6.      Farms should have substantial permanent vegetation and the practice of “all in all out” should stop.

7.      The plough and tilling tractor kills more than bullets and bombs.

8.      Radical changes are needed in agricultural practices to reduce the area and increase the yield per unit area.

While these principles are firmly believed by this writer, they are contested and disagreed by many. A lot of time, energy and trials are needed to prove these principles and a lot more to implement them. This paper is restricted to prove the 7^th point above and here it is.

Out of EQUVALITY, LIBERTY AND FRATERNITY, the LIBERTY is over exploited. The plough and the tilling tractor kill more than bullets and bombs.

KILLING TILLERS

The plough and the tillers kill more than bullets and bombs.

At the end of summer the farmer keeps his plough and oxen ready and at the first rain he starts tilling his land. The bigger farmers do the same with their mighty tractors. The tilling is done: 

1. To uproot all the vegetation in the farm – generally called as weeds and hereinafter called as flora 
2. To kill all the bugs, bees, beetles and butterflies– generally called pests and hereinafter called 4B, along with their eggs and larvae
3.To loosen the soil. In two weeks after the first rains, all the farmlands are tilled, except the bunds over which the sheep and the cattle graze.

When all the farm lands are freshly tilled, it is a nice scene with freshness all around. But over these acres of lands lies millions of dead flora and the 4B and their eggs and larvae are getting roasted under the sun to become manure for the crops the farmer will plant. Millions of deaths have taken place for each poor farmer’s need and billions of deaths have taken place for every rich farmer’s greed (as in mechanized maize farms extending over kms). This massive killing is the effect of tilling.

In addition to mother Earth, every follower of Mahaveer Jain and every naturalist, or even the most selfish person, would cry over this mass killing, when considering the points below.

Mother Earth, if she had life, a heart and eyes would definitely cry over these killings as millions of her children are killed. Any follower of Sant Mahaveer Jain or any naturalist too would cry over this mass killing. Apart from sentiments, considering the points made earlier, any scientifically educated person or  even a very selfish person who can understand the concept, will cry over it.

1. After the tilling, when it rains, again the fresh water precipitation just goes underground.

2. Till the farmer’s sowings sprout and grow up, the water continues to go underground. This flow into the ground does not simply stay there but by gravity sinks deeper and reaches the sea.

3. For a period, as long as the crop stands in the field, there is absorption by the plants and transpiration, sending some of the water to the atmosphere in the day to precipitate as dew in the night. But in a few months after the crops are harvested, the land becomes barren and any rainfall or dew just sinks into the ground and reaches the sea.

4. If the land was not tilled at all, the flora would immediately absorb the rainfall and keep on sending it to the atmosphere, which would return as dew and rainfall.

5. This recycling of fresh water above the surface makes it cumulative and results in growth of big trees, which store even more water and keep returning it, thereby increasing the surface water.

6. Sans this tilling, the 4B thus left alone would flourish and be good food for the birds, and their eggs would be food for reptiles which also will flourish. The flora that flourishes will be food for the mega fauna. This is the natural cycle of life on this earth.

7. Sans tilling, the ground will be firm and less water will go underground due to increased fresh water in the air, as well as in the plants and trees, and the rainwater would flow on the surface resulting in streams, lakes and rivers.

8. Should the tilling continue the enhanced flow of fresh water into the ground and into the sea will keep reducing the fresh water on the surface and, therefore, the rainfall and the dew. Finally, the water that evaporates from the sea will be the only source of fresh water.

Now coming to the interests of the ‘Selfish Person’ who is not bothered with the flora and fauna, the point #8 mentioned above, creates a situation where only lands that are blessed with storms coming from the sea will get rainfall and in other areas the rainfall reduces to a trickle.

This simply is the desertification caused by the plough and the tiller, which starts at killing flora and the 4B and ends killing selfish Man as well.

“This has actually happened over the last forty years in a small village in Kolar dist of Karnataka, that is under study by me, as I come from this village.  Forty years ago, there were open wells with fresh water from a depth of 20 feet below the surface of the ground. After the constant tilling of the land extended to more areas over the last four decades, there is no water  even in 2000 feet deep bore wells. Then there used to be dew drops in the mornings on every leaf of the beetle-leaf garden. Now neither are the gardens there, nor are there any dew drops. There are only dues in the banks and drops in the eyes.”

© Copyright 2014 Venugopal V.R. All rights reserved.