Growing deserts threaten poor: UN

0 Comments | AFP, June, 2005

WASHINGTON (AFP) — Deserts creeping into arable land threaten the environment, as well as billions of the world's poor, said a UN report released on the eve of World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought.

"Growing desertification worldwide threatens to swell by millions the number of poor forced to seek new homes and livelihoods," said the report, "Ecosystems and Human Well Being: Desertification Synthesis."

"And a rising number of large, intense dust storms plaguing many areas menace the health of people even continents away," international experts warned in the report.

Desertification, the degradation of arid and arid lands due to climate and human activity, has degraded some 10 to 20 percent of drylands, according to the UN study.

"Some 41...