ESCI 1001 Lecture 12: Deserts and Ice Ages Notes
Document Summary
Inner niger delta, mali: 25x florida everglades (734 sq. mi, rely on wood for cooking and dwellings. 2/3 urban population no electricity: agriculture largest gdp (gross domestic product) and employment sector, water for agriculture: nigeria: 50%, niger: 67%, mali: 98% Rainfall highly erratic, but no infrastructure to manage water. ~6% of cultivated land is equipped for irrigation: farmers planting on more land more often. Not letting the earth lie fallow to recover between harvests. Seasonal livestock movement: herds are highly active and travel across countries, during rainy season, herds migrate northward, during dry season, herds travel south. Dependence on fuelwood: cities don"t have resources to cook, so they burn wood, cities with large populations use a lot of wood, huge contributor to deforestation. Desertification in china: north is dry. More coal-fired power plants- water that can be used by people. More high-tech factories: south-north water diversion project. This is not a new idea: grand canal china.
