Conversation reported and produced by Sadie Babits.
The United Nations says more than two billion people on earth are affected by desertification.
Mike Manfredo: “Desertification is land degradation that creates desert like conditions. That’s really quite simple. And as productive land becomes desert like it can no longer produce crops and be productive in other ways to society.”
Mike Manfredo heads up a department at Colorado State University that looks at how people interact with the land. Manfredo’s also the one who got the United Nations to come to CSU. On Thursday, UN officials were in Fort Collins to announce a decade-long initiative to combat land degradation. It’s known as the “Decade for Deserts and the Fight against Desertification.” Now if you’re thinking that desertification only happens in the developing world, think again. It’s a problem in our own state.
To learn more about the UN’s effort to combat desertification click here.
Photo by NASA.
