{"id":1902,"date":"2018-06-17T09:58:53","date_gmt":"2018-06-17T08:58:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/stem\/?p=1902"},"modified":"2018-06-14T13:43:48","modified_gmt":"2018-06-14T12:43:48","slug":"the-importance-of-combating-desertification-and-drought","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/stem\/2018\/06\/17\/the-importance-of-combating-desertification-and-drought\/","title":{"rendered":"The Importance of Combating Desertification and Drought"},"content":{"rendered":"

The 17th June marks the United Nation’s World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought<\/strong>. The day serves as a reminder of the international efforts taking place to combat land degradation – these efforts are incredibly important to the livelihood of not only a huge number of ecosystems, but to millions of humans worldwide.<\/p>\n

Desertification is the degradation of land<\/strong> in arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid areas. Degradation processes can be fueled by a number of factors, including temperature and rainfall changes resulting from climate change<\/strong> and human-induced drivers of change such as soil erosion<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

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As the land begins to degrade, the benefits it once provided begin to diminish<\/strong> and the\u00a0climate can be affected due to “many forms of land degradation releasing carbon into the atmosphere<\/strong>, exacerbating climate change.”<\/p>\n

Research conducted by\u00a0Professor Mark Reed<\/a><\/strong>, Newcastle University, and\u00a0Professor Lindsay Stringer<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>of University of Leeds highlights how the effects of climate change may be far greater for the world\u2019s poorest people than previously feared due to the devastating consequences<\/strong> desertification can have on food production<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s easy to think of land degradation as a problem of the developing world that doesn\u2019t affect us here in the UK,\u201d explains Professor Reed, Professor of Socio-Technical Innovation at Newcastle University.<\/p>\n

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\u201cBut if we continue to lose productive forests and rangelands around the world, then the carbon that they once locked up will be released into the atmosphere where it\u2019ll drive further loss of productive ecosystems<\/strong> and more climate change.<\/p>\n

“This will leave even more people vulnerable to the combined effects of climate change and land degradation.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a vicious cycle<\/strong> and one that will affect everyone living on the planet if we don\u2019t start doing more to avoid runaway climate change by properly looking after our land<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p>\n

In order to tackle this problem, Professors Reed and Stringer explain that we need a more collaborative approach between\u00a0researchers, local communities and international policy-makers to create timely and cost effective solutions.<\/p>\n

Find out more about Newcastle University’s agricultural research here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The 17th June marks the United Nation’s World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought. The day serves as a reminder of the international efforts taking place to combat land degradation – these efforts are incredibly important to the livelihood of not only a huge number of ecosystems, but to millions of humans worldwide. Desertification is … Continue reading The Importance of Combating Desertification and Drought<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2638,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[405,365,400,401,133,403,404,402],"class_list":["post-1902","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","tag-agricultural-research","tag-climate-change","tag-desertification","tag-land-degradation","tag-newcastle-university","tag-professor-mark-reed","tag-school-of-natural-and-environmental-sciences","tag-world-day-to-combat-desertification-and-drought"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/stem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1902","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/stem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/stem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/stem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2638"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/stem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1902"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/stem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1902\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1908,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/stem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1902\/revisions\/1908"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/stem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1902"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/stem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1902"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ncl.ac.uk\/stem\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1902"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}