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Creeping desertification to force mass migrations |
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Written by Jan Lee Martin
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Saturday, 15 July 2006 |
Over one third of the earth’s land surface is threatened by desertification, which may force 60 million people to migrate from sub-Saharan Africa to northern Africa and Europe by 2020. "Desertification directly affects the lives of more than 250m people and threatens another 1.2bn in 110 countries." said a UNESCO press release. "The economic impact is also considerable. Lost agricultural production due to drought and desertification costs an estimated US$42 bn annually, with another US$2.4 bn spent fighting land degradation. Experts believe the problem is likely to worsen.
www.unesco.org 26 June 2006
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Signals in the Noise 