From: Rakesh Biswas <rakesh7biswas@...>
Subject: Re: [netrum] Calling attn: NetRUMians: desertification due to anthropogenic pressures and an ailing Earth
To: netrum@yahoogroups.com
Date: Sunday, July 5, 2009, 9:34 AM

Humans first started out of Africa and spread out over middle East, Europe and Afghanistan and subsequenty the south East and far East.

 

We have all started our evolutionary journey from Africa I guess after we climbed down from our arboreal perches and gave up our fruit eating habits (for grain which enabled us to eat less meals and utilize the time for more creative pursuits).

 

Gradually over cultivation has done away with our forests and created large tracts of arid land (there are natural factors to desertification as well other than humans but then we are just focusing on humans here).

 

Added to this humans have augmented the process of desertification through concretization and furthered it through inter racial conflicts.

 

As pointed out by Dr Bashaar and the UN: long-term environmental degradation is caused, in part, by a complete collapse of local and national forms of governance.

 

At the moment the health of Earth is at stake and human health is obviously related to it.

 

 

A possibly related article:

 

http://www.pubmedce ntral.nih. gov/articlerende r.fcgi?artid= 1123576

 

My apologies if this post was not related to vital local issues but was a vague rambling on issues in general about the Earth and its health.

 

regards,

 

r

 

 

 

On Sun, Jul 5, 2009 at 9:50 AM, Mohammad Bashaar <bashaarulfat@ yahoo.com> wrote:

Dear Colleagues, As we pointed out in our previous discussions, that there were many reasons why the future of Afghanistan’s environment was grim? The answer would be: three decades of armed conflict, population displacement and extended drought; the misuse of natural resources; the lack of a law enforcement authority; and the lack of appropriate policies for the environment.   If the government and international aid organizations continue ignoring the country’s degrading environment. Afghanistan will face a serious environmental crisis, which will have grave consequences for millions of its estimated 27 million populations.   According to the recent report - called Sustainable Land Management 2007 - by Afghanistan’s Ministry of Agriculture and Food (MoAF), said that “More than 80 percent of Afghanistan’s land could be subject to soil erosion, soil fertility is declining, salinisation is on the increase, water tables have dramatically fallen, de-vegetation is extensive and soil erosion by water and wind is widespread, Deforestation According to Abdul Rahman Hotaky, chairman of the Afghan Organisation for Human Rights and Environmental Protection (AOHREP), “In the last two decades, we have lost over 70 percent of our forests throughout the country and extensive deforestation has had multiple social, environmental and economic implications for millions of Afghans. One of the immediately visible humanitarian implications of deforestation is the country’s increasingly vulnerability to various natural disasters, specialists say. According to Hazrat Hussain Khaurin, the director of the forests and rangeland department in the food and agriculture ministry, “Recently, we witnessed increasing numbers of floods, avalanches and landslides as a result of deforestation. According to government statistics, until the early 1980s, about 19,000sqkm of Afghanistan’s 652,225sqkm territory was covered by forests, which were a sustainable source of income for the government and its citizens. Desertification While agriculture and animal husbandry constitute the backbone of Afghanistan’s underdeveloped economy, up to 50 percent of its farmlands have not been cultivated for the last two decades due to various natural and human factors, indicated the Sustainable Land Management 2007 report. Afghanistan’s geomorphology has historically comprised highlands, rugged terrains and flatlands, and partly arid deserts. However, the deserts have been rapidly expanding in southern, eastern and northern regions of the country. “Neither the government nor impoverished Afghan farmers have the basic technology or required resources to resist widening desertification,” said Khaurin. “Thousands of hectares of agricultural land have been covered by moving sands in seven southern and southwestern provinces,” he added. Bushes and other plants that once created natural buffers against sand movement and flash floods flows have been used as fuel by local residents for many years. Many Afghan refugees who return to their rural communities from neighboring countries find it impossible to cultivate infertile and arid land with very little irrigation and farming facilities. “Desertification has exacerbated already widespread poverty among many Afghan farmers who seem hapless to tackle problems created by this natural crisis,” said Hotaky of the human rights and environment protection body. Against a rapidly increasing population, which requires food, fuel and shelter, among other things, the volume of Afghanistan’s agricultural produce has decreased by 50 percent over the past few years, the food and agriculture ministry said. Lack of attention For decades, Afghan governments who have come to power have concentrated on winning wars, ensuring stability and solving political dilemmas while paying little attention to a degrading environment, specialists say. The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in a study found that Afghanistan’s long-term environmental degradation is caused, in part, by a complete collapse of local and national forms of governance. Best Regards   Mohammad Bashaar --- On Sun, 7/5/09, Vijay <drvijaythawani@ yahoo.co. in> wrote: From: Vijay <drvijaythawani@ yahoo.co. in> Subject: [netrum] Calling attn: NetRUMians To: netrum@yahoogroups. com Date: Sunday, July 5, 2009, 3:10 AM Hi,  I am pained to see that not many of you are making posts in the discussions. Please realise that the moderators and management of NetRUM work FOC.  It is frustrating to experience such cold response. Wake up friends and make this sunday count with your posts . Vijay