Climate and desert

Many places that today are deserts were once bustling with life. What is the reason for this?

About thirty-five million years ago, the continents of Europe, Asia and America "stabilized" around the North Pole and blocked the currents of the merging oceans in the south. Antarctica already "sat" on the South Pole and thus we entered an ice age that will last until the time when there is again a direct and uninterrupted connection between the oceans and the poles.

Preventing this connection causes an accumulation of ice at the ice poles which affects the climate of the entire world. Periodicity of changing the earth's orbit around the sun and changing the angle of the sphere on its axis causes warming or cooling, a process named after the Serbian engineer Milankovic, who was the first to define this periodicity.

Cooling causes an increase in the areas of ice at the poles. The white surfaces reflect the sun's energy and thus baldness is stimulated. Warming puts us in an "interglacial" (interglacial) period. We have been in such a period for about 15 thousand years.

Following the covering of the poles with ice at the beginning of the ice age, deserts were created near the sea, such as the desert along the coast of South America in Chile and Peru, the Atacama Desert, the Namib Desert in southern Africa in Namibia, and more. These are deserts that were created because of cold water currents in the oceans that "suck" the moisture into them and prevent precipitation on land.

Various signs show us that in the mentioned deserts there was a rich fauna and flora similar to what exists today in equatorial regions. The youngest of the deserts and therefore the most studied and known is the Sahara where lake sediments were found and around them the remains of living plants and mainly human activity. One of the more dramatic findings was found in the caves in Jebel Eynat on the border of Sudan, Egypt and Libya - on the walls of a cave paintings were found depicting - Savannah animals such as elephants, crocodiles, etc. Yerves, various antelopes and above all a lot of paintings of people swimming in a cave called "Swimmers' Cave". Those who saw the English wounded film saw the Hollywood version of the glorious find. Even in the Negev there are signs of agriculture and permanent settlements in areas such as Mimot Fawat, Bikat Ovda, the Southern Arava, and more.

Every four to seven years the current of cold water along the coast of South America moves away and the temperature of the water near the coast rises. This change causes seasonal storms and affects the climate in large areas of the world. Since the events take place close to Christmas, he was given the name El Nino after the child of the Holy Trinity (Christian Jesus).

Recently, various researchers claim that one of the factors that stimulates the "El Niño" is volcanic eruptions, according to a statistical comparison between the data of eruptions and El Niño events in the last three centuries. The explanation for the connection is that when volcanoes erupt, many gases and dust block heat radiation from the earth into space, the atmosphere heats up and the hot air stimulates the El Nino phenomenon and extreme weather phenomena around the world.

An important factor affecting the temperature of the sphere is the carbon dioxide gas, CO2, which is created as a by-product in the burning of fossil fuel (petroleum) and is emitted from power plants, factories, ships, airplanes, cars and industrial facilities. The CH4 methane gas is produced and emitted by animals in the wild, but more so by farm animals (sheep and cattle). Upon reaching the atmosphere, the methane combines with molecules of hydrogen monoxide - OH - and creates molecules of water and carbon dioxide.

The gases are transparent to visible light but absorb infrared radiation. Therefore, energy radiated from the earth into space remains trapped in the atmosphere and causes warming, this is the greenhouse effect.

High in the atmosphere, an ozone layer protects us - a molecule consisting of three oxygen atoms. The ozone layer prevents most of the ultraviolet radiation coming from the sun from reaching the ground, since the ultraviolet radiation is harmful to life and plants, since the ozone layer plays the role of a protective filter. Ironic is the fact that the same protective filter when it is close to the ground is a poison and one of the important components of air pollution in big cities (SMOG-smog).

The hole in the ozone was first diagnosed in 1970 by British researchers living in Antarctica. The finding was so amazing that the researchers believed that there was a malfunction in the measuring devices and only after repeated tests did they accept the data as it is.

At the end of the millennium, the hole reached its peak in size and was equal in area to the size of the North American continent. Since then, the effect of treaties and bans on the use of gases from the ChloroFluoroCarbon family (fluorine, chlorine, carbon) can be seen and the spread of the hole may have stopped.

The gas mixtures used in sprays and cooling systems are emitted into the atmosphere, bind to the ozone and cause the protective layer to be diluted to such an extent that today we talk about a hole in the ozone - a hole whose size varies from season to season but is large enough to cause damage to life and plants. We are directly harmed by strong radiation that causes cancer and if so After all, it is clear that animals and plants are also harmed.

Agreements between nations forbid the use of those gases that damage the ozone layer, but the damage has already been done and it will take many years, if at all, to repair it.

Since the middle of the last century, we hear the concept of global warming because, as mentioned above, we are in an interglacial period, apparently this is an expected and natural process, but it turns out that since the industrial revolution, this natural process has been enhanced by man-made or machine-made greenhouse gases.

Burning fossil fuels (coal and petroleum products) release the same greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, meaning the use of cars, industrial mechanization, power plants, heating and cooking, all of which contribute to the greenhouse effect and stimulate the warming process of our environment.

It is interesting that a group of researchers from the USA who are funded and supported by the government came out with a statement that "Earth warming due to greenhouse gases produced by human society is a journalistic scientific duck designed to harm the ability of large industrial companies to compete with their peers in Europe" a statement that came to facilitate The public pressure on those companies to stop pollution and commit to clean energy. To explain the excess warming, they claim that in the last twenty years the sun has become brighter and brighter, meaning more energy is being directed towards our globe.

These and other ideas lead to the fact that there is disagreement among different researchers for which part of the warming we are directly responsible for, but there is no dispute about the basic fact that at least part of the warming is caused by human activity.

Let's add to this the massive destruction of forests: Part of the destruction is accompanied by huge fires that add greenhouse gases to forests that absorbed these gases and "imprisoned" them. In addition to forests, the gases are absorbed by phytoplankton, but in recent years it turns out that the amount of phytoplankton in the oceans has decreased by tens of percent, probably due to human-made pollution. So there is no doubt about the human contribution to global warming.

Presumably warming does not have to be negative since the warmer the world gets, the more glaciers will melt and there will be more water in the global cycle and we are short of water (see link below to the article on the subject). But more water means rising ocean levels. Already today there are flooded islands and the forecast is that towards the middle of the century, large urban centers located on the shores of the oceans will be affected.

If there is indeed more water in the global cycle, then one should expect more rains also in arid areas, deserts, etc. and not it. It turns out that warming causes an "unjust distribution" of sediments. The weather has become more extreme, winter storms on a scale not predicted so far in temperate and cold areas on the one hand, and on the other hand persistent drought in arid areas.

It turns out that man has a significant part in actually creating dry areas. The environment of Lake Chad in Africa was until the fifties of the last century a grassy savanna that provided grazing needs for wild animals and shepherds for their flocks and herds. Improvement of living conditions made it possible to increase the population of shepherds and of course a significant increase in the number of herds. The trees that became fuel.

The result is huge plains bare of any vegetation. This bare vegetation is much brighter than the plant cover, which causes the sun's rays to be reflected and the air layers above the bare plains to overheat, a warming that prevents clouds from thickening and in other words prevents rain, and thus an area that was never rainy before, became within fifty years to the desert Dust storms arise in the desert, and according to satellite images from the last decade, dust clouds from the Gobi desert in China or alternatively from the Sahara "migrate" with the winds over the oceans and along the way cause weather changes in a similar way. The area south of the Sahara known as the Sahel is becoming a desert. Shepherds expand their migration circles with their growing herds. The herds and families of the shepherds need more water that is produced from seasonal wells. The pressure on the wells dries up and at the same time all the trees around the wells are cut down for burning and the result is a desert.

Today, all the inhabitants of the Sahel need help in providing food from international bodies, but they also provide seeds with the intention to sow and satisfy the needs of the residents, but the drought continues and so does the famine. In the same way, in the same way and in the same process, ancient herders could contribute by overgrazing to the clearing of expanding areas and thus affect the local climate.

Today it is known that the Sahara dried up gradually from west to east and the shepherds migrated accordingly. So that about seven thousand years ago, the entire Western Sahara was a desert and the only area where there were still shepherds was the area west of the Nile. Another two thousand years and this area also became a desert. In our immediate environment we saw the same process in the tiny ¬anafin.

The main limitation on the size of the Miknena herds among the Bedouins in the Negev and Sinai was the water limit, every shepherd knew that he could not keep more goats than he could water in the nearest well. Thus, until the arrival of cars that made it possible to transport water from distant sources, the herds grew far beyond the carrying capacity of the area, which became more and more arid, so that today the Bedouins transport both food and water to huge herds.

According to studies and reviews conducted in Antarctica, a wind axis above the pole causes a kind of permanent tornado, to "send" clouds towards Australia, clouds that brought rain in wide areas. The combined effects of warming and the hole in the ozone found over Antarctica weaken that wind axis and the result in recent years is a persistent drought on the Australian continent.

Another form of the warming damage is in places where glaciers supply the water to their surroundings. The glaciers are gradually melting and their waters seep and appear as springs or flow into rivers. Since the warming was diagnosed, the glaciers are melting very quickly. Rivers flowing from the Himalayan glaciers are flowing and causing damage. The floods as well as the warming are exacerbated by deforestation that previously would have moderated the flow elsewhere Glaciers on top of mountains are simply disappearing which endangers the water sources at the foot of these mountains The famous glaciers on top of Mount Kenya in the final calving stage its taller neighbor Kilimanjaro is losing its white crown at the foot of Kilimanjaro Ro rises from the groundwater level and causes salinization. Green pastures are becoming saline. Even in saturated Canada, the phenomenon of melting glaciers is feared. Around Antarctica, huge glaciers are melting and detaching from the southern ice mass and embarking on a journey north. It turns out that the warming phenomenon is more extreme at the poles: if on a global scale an increase of one degree was measured, then in Alaska an increase of three degrees was measured.

In the north of Alaska, a ycaron beetle - a beetle - whose distribution has been limited to this day due to the cold, is penetrating the forests and leaves brown spots of dead trees. Alaskan mosquitoes are conquering new territories and enfilading.

The Inuit Eskimos stratify their ability to predict the weather and consequently do not know when it is possible to walk on the ice to hunt, when it is possible to drill holes for fishing. Birds they don't know appear in their territories and birds from which they make a living disappear. Polar bears are in a similar situation. These knew that in the spring you can walk on the ice and hunt seals that come out to breathe air. Today the ice is melting earlier than usual and the bears lack an essential food component.

In recent years, temperatures have been measured in India five degrees higher than normal in the pre-monsoon period. Thousands of people died in the heat waves. In North America, more tornadoes were counted and more powerful than ever before. Dozens of people died in the storms. In Europe, a terrible rainstorm caused damages in the billions. Dozens perished. In the summer of 2003, a heat wave caused the death of thousands. Mudslides and floods in South America have killed hundreds.

All these data lead those dealing with the climate to think that the climate or the weather may be more dangerous than any weapon of mass destruction and therefore the problem must be addressed in this spirit. According to measurements, the temperature around the Alps has risen by more than two degrees since the XNUMXs. This increase causes an increased melting of the glaciers of the Alps and the fed rivers flow twice as much water. The immediate result is seen in floods in the next stage there will not be enough glaciers to provide flow throughout the year.

In Peru, glaciers at the top of the Andes provide water flow for thousands of farming families. In the last three decades these glaciers have processed a quarter of their volume and again the immediate result is floods and then lack of water.

A group of British researchers who worked in Lake Tanganyika in Africa, to check what caused the fall of the fish harvest, a fall of more than seventy percent in less than thirty years, found that, contrary to conventional wisdom, the cause is not wild and uncontrolled fishing but the warming of the air above the lake. With the air, the upper layer of water also heats up. Because of the warming, winds don't blow and the water doesn't swirl, which makes it difficult for algae to grow, which is the basis of food. The lake is warmer, less algae, less food and less fish. All this in one of the largest lakes in the world around which sit millions of families who make a living from fishing. A similar process happens in the oceans. Zooplankton and phytoplankton, which form the basis of food, are damaged and their quantity drops by tens of percent. This is a combined result of warming and excess ultraviolet radiation. According to tests by the International Food Fund of the United Nations, the amount of plankton in the oceans has decreased by thirty percent in twenty years. The effect on the amount of fish in the oceans is clear. According to surveys by researchers all over the world, the warming of the oceans is killing coral reefs. Coral reefs in the Indian Ocean are dying in a phenomenon called bleaching. Bleaching

After the El Niño in XNUMX, about ninety percent of the reefs surveyed died. Corals are not only beautiful, they provide an important habitat for fish and other creatures that are an important part of the food system in the oceans. Corals provide a protective strip for inhabited islands and beaches against waves and floods. Without corals there are no fish and there is no possibility of living on the beaches.

To try and prevent further deterioration, green bodies and country representatives gathered in Kyoto, Japan (1997), and decided to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from industrialized countries by five percent within 12 years. Many European countries are following the Kyoto Convention and doing to reduce the emission of pollutants.

Each of the major industrial countries has a set amount of greenhouse gases that they will be allowed to produce and emit. In order to implement the directives of the convention and to emphasize the economic side, we will open a market for "greenhouse gas trade", a kind of stock exchange where there will be trade between countries and factories, that is, factories that meet the requirements by installing installations and filters to prevent pollution can sell the excess lack of gas pollution to those who do not comply in the requirements and thus on the one hand the investment in pollution prevention is worthwhile and on the other hand those who did not invest are liable for indirect fines.

But for the convention to be binding, 55 countries have to sign it. To date, only 22 have signed. In December 2003, bodies gathered in Milan to check who joined the Coyote Treaty, who else can be added (the Russians are candidates), what can be done and how to continue the activity that has meanwhile been proven to be largely effective.

This is due to tests that have shown that the level of pollutants has indeed decreased since the activity to prevent greenhouse gases began. Mainly, a decrease in methane gas emissions was measured, in order for the decrease to be effective, more countries, especially polluting countries belonging to the "West", must join the convention and act according to its guidelines.

Poor countries like India and China are "sitting on the fence" and waiting for rich countries to start investing in them in order to reduce the emission of pollutants.

At the same time, despite the need for investments, many poor countries are taking steps towards lowering pollutant levels, planting forests, monitoring factories under construction, etc. It is already clear that the target of five percent will not satisfy, and today there is talk of the need to lower pollutant emissions by seventy percent by half a century, this in an attempt to prevent climate disasters that roll in like a snowball, since the accumulation of warming phenomena stimulate the negative processes and the extremity of the phenomena is increasing.

At the head of the non-signatory countries is the largest industrialized and polluting country - the USA. The rule of those who are carried on top of oil companies and heavy industries does not see the urgency and the need for the Kyoto Treaty and the result borders on disaster.