desertification, definition of

Conversion of rangeland, rain-fed cropland to desert-like land, with a drop in agricultural productivity of 10% or more. This is usually caused by a combination of overgrazing, soil erosion, prolonged drought, and climate change.

• Planet Earth is Dying — and Not Because of Fossil Fuels, With Allan Savory (Part 1)
  Savory warns that failing to adopt better land management practices, including the strategic use of livestock, poses a significant threat to the planet's ecosystems and humanity's survival.
• Sahara Expert Says Desert Shrinking, Calls Alarmist Tipping Points “Complete Nonsense”
  Climate tipping points are much more fantasy than science 
• NY Times Claims Brazil Is Turning Into Desert, As Foliage Growth Surges
  The simple, undeniable truth is that vegetation is increasing virtually everywhere in Brazil. The New York Times, in order to promote a fictitious climate crisis, is telling provably wrong lies to sell newspapers and to sell alarm
• Pushing the Great American Desert Eastward – Reality or Hype?
  Guest essay by Rick Yarnell In 1877 an explorer and scientist named John Wesley Powell conceived a dividing line in the North American continent that marked the separation of the green and humid East from the dry, desert West...
• China is planting 6.6 million hectares of new forest almost the size of Ireland
  The government of China has announced its plans to plant forests in 2018 that will occupy at least 6.6 million hectares, roughly equivalent to the size of Ireland. As the United States forfeits its leadership on climate change, China has been eager to...
• Substantial swaths of globe face desertification without climate action - new study
  Limiting global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels could reduce desertification of substantial swaths of Earth, according to a new study published in Nature Climate Change. The Paris Agreement entered into force on 4 November...
• 'Great American Desert' threatens to swallow eight US states as massive aquifer dries up
  The Ogallala aquifer, one of the world's largest underground bodies of water upon which many ecosystems and communities in the American West depend, is in rapid decline due to over-exploitation of its resources...
• The world's mightiest river is dying
  The Nile River, the longest in the world at 4,258 miles (6,853km), is shrinking in the face of several harsh environmental challenges. An exploding human population and continued exploitation of communities and natural resources along the river has put...
• China is fighting desertification with a Great Green Wall of trees
  In a major geoengineering effort to fight back against ever-encroaching desert, China is planting trees to create a "Great Green Wall" that may halt erosion, capture carbon, and provide economic benefits to the People's Republic...
• Archaeologist suggests ancient humans helped catalyze the Sahara's desertification
  The Sahara Desert we know, with its rolling sand dunes and hot temperatures, used to be a verdant grassland with lakes. Scientists have traditionally attributed the dramatic change to a wobble in Earth's orbital axis, but now archaeologist David K. Wright...