The ways that human activities are degrading our deserts

Traditionally, deserts were considered to be unsuitable for living of humans because natural conditions were extremely unfavorable for the survival of humans, while normal living seemed to be practically impossible in deserted territories. However, in the course of time humans get adapted to the life in deserts and, what is more, they started to use deserts in their socio-economic activities. In this respect, it is worth mentioning the fact that human started to use deserts to develop their agriculture and for some people agriculture in desert became an important survival strategy. However, today, many deserts face a threat of degradation that means that immediate actions need to be taken to prevent deserts from the further degradation.

In this respect, it should be said that the global climate change affects the entire planet and changes deserts as well. As a result, traditional human activities, including agriculture become impossible in deserts. Moreover, the climate change leads to the extinction of species inhabiting deserts.

In addition, it is important to underline that deserts became polygons for testing various weapon, including nuclear weapon, as well as products which can be potentially dangerous for the environment. In the result of such tests, the ecosystem of deserts is changing dramatically and often it cannot recover.

In such a situation, it is obvious that people should change their attitude to deserts as a no-man-land because such an approach is totally erroneous from the environmental point of view. Deserts are inhabited by various species and, what is more, they can be used by humans too. This is why human activities, which lead to the direct or indirect pollution of deserts and extinction of local species, should be totally forbidden or changed in order to prevent their harmful impact and stop deserts’ degradation.