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Is the desert green?

Farouk Al-Baz, director of the Center for Remote Sensing at Boston University, claims that the retreat of the Sahara desert is visible. How does this deal with the multitudes of refugees from the areas who moved from the desert to the nearby cities and cause many problems there?

Satellite map of the Sahara desert. Photo: NASA.
Satellite map of the Sahara desert. Photo: NASA.

A common assumption is that global warming is causing the drying and expansion of deserts, but now there are those who claim the opposite. An expert in identifying satellite images claims that "water and life are returning to the desert", "soon vast desert areas like the Sahara will begin to shrink". The evidence for the claims is limited and decisive conclusions cannot be reached, but satellite images of North Africa show a retreat of the desert."

Farouk el-Baz, director of the Center for Remote Sensing at Boston University, believes that "the Sahara is changing from dry conditions to humid conditions".

According to him "the desert is not greening (yet) but the expansion or contraction of the desert relies on the amount of energy absorbed from the sun for thousands of years" "Warming will cause increased evaporation which will cause more rains" (more rains = less desert?). Al-Baz bases his words on satellite photographs, but he hastens to add that "it is difficult to compare the photographs to a beam on the ground"

While experts debate the question of how warming will affect the continent's poor, the "poor" respond in their own way, a persistent drought has pushed nomads and villagers to urban settlements, a movement that indicates dry and harsh weather that prevents the survival of farmers and shepherds. The Intergovernmental Organization for Climate Change has warned that the warming will reduce the agricultural produce from West Africa by 50% by 2020. How does this fit with Al-Baz's idea?

Al-Baz goes on to explain that "satellite photographs from the last 15 years show a vegetation recovery in the south of the Sahara," (perhaps due to a continuous exodus of herders moving south? A deliberate movement causes severe damage to the savannah desert in the Sahel belt (south of the Sahara), a savannah that is at constant risk of desertification due to Human activity: felling of trees, failed management of agriculture that causes the weathering of the fertile soil layer and overexploitation of the scarce water sources, cause the desert to progress and conquer new areas.

To strengthen his words, Al-Baz brings rain data from recent years in the Namibian deserts. According to him, "the measurements show that in recent years there has been a considerable increase in the amount of rainfall, in an area where the multi-year average is about 12 mm, 80 mm fell in one year." At a measuring station in Gudbab (in Kalahari), frequent floods and an increase in temperature are noted. That is, even though more rains fell, the increase in temperatures caused increased evaporation (and thus the balance ... is negative!).

It is more for me to explain to the readers (and Al-Baz) that rains in the deserts fall inconsistently and in an "unordered" manner, we know the cloud fragments that cause floods here. The rains in Namibia come from the Indian Ocean after crossing the African continent (crosswise), so according to Al-Baz "it is difficult to explain it in the amount of rains without accepting the assumption that high temperatures cause migration, variability and an increase in the frequency of rains".

To give reinforcement to his idea about the "green desert", Al-Baz says that meanwhile, in the north of the continent, the desert is being greened very quickly, more than what the satellite photos from the Sahara show. The Egyptians exploit underground reservoirs in the Western Desert (Eastern Sahara) and develop agricultural settlements in areas that were until now a dry desert.

In 1981, water sources in the desert were identified with the help of satellite technology. The person responsible for identifying the reservoirs is ... Al-Baz, and therefore the new agricultural ventures are to his credit. The reservoirs hold "fossilized" water, which means that there is no regeneration and therefore the development of the settlements... "on condition", to ensure the future of desert agriculture, the Egyptians began transporting the Nile water in the "Tushka Canal" (I wrote about this before), a project that upsets the spirits of the African countries above The Nile, countries that require the possibility of greater use of the water of the Hior.

And so when he relied on his expertise - deciphering satellite photographs and as a boost to the agricultural project in Egypt (a project in which he has a large and important part), Al-Baz tries to show that there may be a positive side to the warming?

Every few weeks the media come up with the idea of ​​a number of respected professors, including one Israeli, who show with signs and examples that global warming is not man-made. Now comes an analyst of satellite photos - an expert in his field and tries to show us that the desert is greening, that is, the warming causes a positive process.

I am short of standing in front of these experts. I have no doubt that each and every one of the speakers is an expert and a scientist in his field - one of the best there is, and it is also possible that there is more than a hint of truth in their assumptions, but when reading and listening to ordinary people put together the words of the two respected experts, they come to the conclusion that there is no point in activities to lower the levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, and possibly warming in general positive That means you can continue to pollute our air without fear, cut down forests, damage water bodies, pollute the oceans and continue as if there is no tomorrow.

The danger in publications increases when "great" leaders who were elected for the moment and who do not see beyond the end of their term of office hang on publications as an excuse for doing...nothing, trusting in publications even if there is truth in them, the practical (wrong) interpretation gives them an excuse to continue to lead our environment to destruction.

12 תגובות

  1. Answer to Hanan-
    You don't ask the earth and neither do you ask the plants-
    Because they don't care about what happens here, whether there will be a nuclear holocaust or not
    They really don't care.
    The animals are interesting-
    If you ask my dogs and the cats and fish and birds that I build nesting boxes for in my yard
    I am sure they will answer you that good people are loved and bad people are hated.
    But we are human.
    We need to educate young people to love man and nature,
    Make the desert bloom…
    I know that every amateur speaker is currently shouting against this green genius...
    no no!
    In Ben-Gurion's generation, to blossom the wilderness was to build a national carrier. In our generation it is to build geothermal power plants (see the joint venture between Ormat and Google) and start turning the wasteland of the bubbling trend beneath us into a biosphere.
    Friends! There is no problem of a lack of space on the earth, neither of raw materials nor of energy.
    There is a problem of ignorance.
    Be welcome
    pleasantness

  2. The options before us are:
    - Our leaders will come to their senses and start leading corrective measures because that is what they are paid for
    - We will wake up and make a revolution from below
    - Nature will take care and restore itself as it knows according to the ancient rule "evil can control itself".
    As I understand it, the first option will not be carried out because our leaders are only looking for the motives of the government.
    The third option is difficult and terrible and is not an option in our opinion.
    What remains is just us, each in our own little way because we have no other choice!!!!

  3. Hanan
    Man may be a parasite in the DHA, but it doesn't seem to me that the bullet is the terminally ill. It's humanity.
    The ball will recover. It might take him a few years, say a million, and that's it, he'll move on.
    Not sure you need to worry about the ball.
    We, on the other hand, are not sure we can stay with him.

  4. I agree with Hanan's opinion - man is a curse to the earth and to himself:
    – depletes its resources
    - According to some studies, there will be no fish left in the sea in a few decades
    - Every day man causes the reduction of the forested area and the disappearance of animal species
    - Man fights the germs that cause the plagues, and nature has no way to dilute it like in the past (the black plague)
    I don't wish for us to reach the day when humanity will fight for limited resources - just because it didn't limit itself before.

    If humanity was wise, it would sign a treaty that reduces its size by limiting natural birth.
    But just a few years ago, at a conference of all the major religions, there was a shared opinion on one issue - we need to continue multiplying. Religion has always been a source of stupidity and evil...

  5. To Noam:
    Is man a blessing? , depends on who you ask.
    If you are the animals still left on the ball, the answer will be negative.
    If you ask an objective observer from the side, the answer will be that the blessing is temporary because the person consumes himself
    and his surroundings.
    If you ask the earth, the answer will be unequivocal, the destruction is so severe that the globe together with the biological fabric surrounding it is today terminally ill!!!

    Only if you ask the people and especially the believers in them will you get a different answer.

  6. Thanks for the link.
    I recommend reading, and that each of the readers draw his own conclusion.
    The information provided in the original article details facts, defines hypotheses, raises doubts, and in short - gives the intelligent reader a basis for obtaining a picture of the situation (vague and inconclusive, the writers bother to point out).
    Very interesting.

  7. Asaf!
    Indeed, as stated above, you increased doing this time to insert your unscientific opinions wildly.
    You keep saying "his idea about the green desert"
    The satellite photos are not his idea. The photographs are facts that can be explained in one way or another.
    As usual, you prefer the pessimistic explanation about human civilization on the planet.
    You should really keep an eye out - man is a blessing
    And the more people in the universe, the better.
    Best regards,
    pleasantness

  8. And one more thing, please quote the source of the news so that those who are interested can read for themselves.

  9. Dr. Rosenthal
    I agree to my knowledge, and even confirm:
    Please, respect your readers and the hostel, and submit the news cleanly, without your footnotes.
    Your response will be accepted in the matter if it is submitted in an appropriate manner, i.e. distinguished and reasoned at the end of the news.

  10. Oh really.
    The article was really interesting including your objections up to let's say the third paragraph from the end.
    Again the same delegitimization you are trying to do without proper scientific motives.

    You increased to do and claimed that the publications of those researchers are harmful, if only because of how this or that person will publish.
    You are absolutely right. Let's hide the truth (this is not an argument for this topic, it's a general matter), because only fear will make people greener.
    We will not investigate the truth, we will not try to understand the processes that are happening here (as above), because the people are too stupid to understand.
    By the way, I have not yet heard of any article that decided that the problem is not necessarily us and continued with it "so come on gentlemen, pollute pollute pollute".
    And regarding the leaders, you don't really think they need such studies to censor us about their decisions (non-decisions).

    The main point, Assaf, is that your support for disinformation, your fear of studies that might reveal an opposite and more successful model to the one you developed are a little incompatible with being a scientist (some would say they are too compatible...).

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