Degradation of Land is Threat To Human Life, Saudi Government Says (theguardian.com) 30
The degradation of the world's soils and landscapes is threatening human life, and must be addressed as a matter of urgency, the government of Saudi Arabia has said. The Guardian: Neglect of the land is wiping trillions of dollars from global economies, hampering agricultural production, disrupting water supplies, threatening children with poor nutrition, and destroying vital ecosystems, according to the country's deputy environment minister. Land degradation, and ways to combat the problem, will come into sharp focus at a global summit to be held in the nation's capital, Riyadh, in December.
The conference of the parties (Cop) to the UN convention on combating desertification (CCD), which takes place every two years, is often an overlooked international meeting, sparsely attended compared with the Cops on climate and on biodiversity. But as this year's host, Saudi Arabia is planning to put the issue of land management in the spotlight, inviting senior ministers and heads of government from around the world, in an attempt to bring in some financial muscle. In so doing, the country, often accused of obstructive behaviour at climate Cops, will offer an unusual glimpse of its own environmental priorities, in a world increasingly imperilled by global heating and related water shortages. Osama Faqeeha, deputy environment minister in the kingdom's government, said people should not be misled by the term desertification, which could appear a narrow concern limited to arid countries. In fact, the CCD should be understood to cover all of the globe's vulnerable lands, and efforts to rescue and protect them.
The conference of the parties (Cop) to the UN convention on combating desertification (CCD), which takes place every two years, is often an overlooked international meeting, sparsely attended compared with the Cops on climate and on biodiversity. But as this year's host, Saudi Arabia is planning to put the issue of land management in the spotlight, inviting senior ministers and heads of government from around the world, in an attempt to bring in some financial muscle. In so doing, the country, often accused of obstructive behaviour at climate Cops, will offer an unusual glimpse of its own environmental priorities, in a world increasingly imperilled by global heating and related water shortages. Osama Faqeeha, deputy environment minister in the kingdom's government, said people should not be misled by the term desertification, which could appear a narrow concern limited to arid countries. In fact, the CCD should be understood to cover all of the globe's vulnerable lands, and efforts to rescue and protect them.
Threat to human life (Score:5, Informative)
The biggest threat to human life (and other life) is climate change.
But Saudi Arabia still wants to keep pumping out the oil.
Re: (Score:2)
Building their 100 Mile City is also quite the killer. 21,000 people so far apparently.
Re:Threat to human life (Score:5, Insightful)
Which is caused by humans. Such as by pumping water without regard [cbsnews.com] to grow alfalfa to feed your horses.
Re: (Score:2)
No other conservation effort is even going to matter when the climate system collapses.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
Re: Threat to human life (Score:2)
Getting lectured from Saudi Arabia (Score:3)
Re: Getting lectured from Saudi Arabia (Score:4, Informative)
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
Not to mention that approximately 70% of Saudi Arabia's land area is considered degraded.
Hopi have been saying this for years (Score:4, Interesting)
Look up "Koyaanisqatsi".
The Cree also have a great proverb "Only when the last tree has been cut down, the last fish been caught, and the last stream poisoned, will we realize we cannot eat money".
Therefore... (Score:2)
Let's build a 100km-long completely unsustainable linear city in the middle of the desert!!
Re:Therefore... (Score:4, Insightful)
You're not looking at the purpose of that city from their point of view.
The purpose of a 100km long city that's 200m wide is the ability to control access. Rich people are safe from poor people because there are only a few very tightly controlled borders between sections of the city, and with the expected access-control techniques that are almost certain to be designed, privileges into various parts of the city will be very heavily regulated.
The 'sustainability' has nothing to do with the environment, it has everything to do with the government remaining in power. To borrow some Huxleyisms for class status for a moment, the epsilons won't be able to even get within 50km of the alphas through the city itself, and very likely any attempt to do so by going outside would result in an armed response. The alphas might well be serviced in every conceivable way by no lower than say, gammas most of the time, or perhaps by a few select deltas that have been thoroughly screened. And if epsilons were to get notions of revolution, then their section of the city would simply be cut off, first for travel, and if the problems continue, then literally severed from all resources and left to collapse and die off.
Then stop growing wasteful plants overseas (Score:3)
If Saudi Arabia is so concerned then perhaps they need to express those concerns by stopping their practices of acquiring farmland in foreign countries to grow alfalfa on an industrial scale.
Fuck Saudi Government, Their King and Crown Prince (Score:3)
Killed and dismembered any American journalists lately and got away with it? It cheapens U.S. citizenship and lives.
Re: (Score:2)
Apparently the pen isn't mightier than the bonesaw and vat of acid.
Re: (Score:3)
Killed and dismembered any American journalists lately and got away with it?
They've been having trouble keeping up with Israel.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
They'll never catch up. What's happening right now in Gaza, WB, and Lebanon boggles the mind. The hypocrisy and double standard the U.S. has instituted is yet another stain on our own bloody hands.
Irony is dead (Score:2)
Wake me when... never actually.
So easy for them to put money where their mouth is (Score:4, Interesting)
I just don't get why they don't combat desertification by putting in several truly massive solar farms in places where there's a reasonable prospect of getting some condensation and thus plant growth in the panel shade. They have the space, the sunshine, etc. I know they've got some moderate scale projects in place, with more coming, but they could spend $10bn without blinking. China built the current largest solar farm, output 5GW, annual capacity 6TWh, for about $2bn. So the Saudis could have 5 of these, ie 30TWh for that $10bn, which would be about 10% of their annual consumption. Obviously they need to manage their transition and not fuck over their economy, but still. And it would take up less than 0.2% of their desert, by my quick calculation (1500 square miles vs 900,000 square miles)
Re: (Score:2)
The Saudi's are trying to move themselves out of the welfare-fundamentalist theocracy, they now inhabit. The problem is, what can they make? With the only resources being sand and sunshine, they're trying technology but have massive competition from India, Singapore and China.
Their next problem is food security: We've had technology to green the desert for decades: But it's very expensive and long-term. Only a few countries, like Japan and China, will invest decades in building infrastructure.
A cou
Can they stop Russia destroying chernozem? (Score:2)
The chernozem is the best soil there is and russian bombs, mines and waste is destroying it in Ukraine...
Maybe Saudis can stop it?
Re: Can they stop Russia destroying chernozem? (Score:1)
More msmash space filler. (Score:3)
Since when are boilerplate government statements from savage superstitionist backwaters "news"?