Now scientists have measured a rapid recent expansion of desert-like barrenness in the subtropical oceans –- in places where surface waters have also been steadily warming.
Even if emissions are held to the level of pledges put forward ahead of the Paris deal, southern Europe would experience a "substantial" expansion of deserts.
Mr. Kerry said the continuing conflict in southern Sudan, which has killed and displaced tens of thousands of people, is a result of drought and expansion of deserts in the north.
Desertec's backers say it would also be a positive gesture from the developed world to countries of the Middle East and North Africa, which stand to suffer most from the more frequent droughts and the expansion of deserts blamed on global warming.
The chapter makes sweeping arguments regarding the role played by climatic change in 'increasing aridity and the expansion of deserts' (p. 9); it then attempts to link this to the melting glaciers of the East African Mountains.
Analyses of a loess sequence in the Yanqing-Huailai-Zhuolu Yanqing-Huailai-Zhuolu Yanqing-Huailai-Zhuolu Basinabrupt variationorthwestn size at approfimately 250 ka; this variation is regarded as the expansion of the desert Beijingy over northern Chinalsoarevealedijing region, such asimilarabrupt Sandy Land (Xiong et al., 1999).
These two extreme events at 750 720 ka and 270 250 ka in our study correspond to the expansion of the desert regions in western China and northern China, which are regarded as a two-period development of aridification and cooling in the Asian interior (Xiong et al., 1999; Ding et al., 2005).
The concept does not refer to the physical expansion of existing deserts but rather to the various processes that threaten all dryland ecosystems, including deserts as well as grasslands and scrublands.
Water scarcity in hot deserts, which cover about one-fifth of the Earth's land area, along with rapid expansion of hot deserts into arable lands is one of the key global environmental problems.
Desertification is contributing to the expansion of these deserts.
A major environmental issue in China is the continued expansion of its deserts, particularly the Gobi Desert.
