U.N.’s Decade for Deserts and the Fight against Desertification

The U.N. Convention to Combat Desertification Executive Secretary Luc Gnacadja began the meeting with an overview, signing of the document and obligatory handshakes. Apparently, there is a similar announcement on each continent. Colorado State University is the first university in the world to host one of the U.N.’s “decade” announcements. The US speakers took the opportunity to explain the history of desertification catastrophe in the US with stories of the Dust Bowl in the 1930s, and allusions to future Dust Bowls in response to climate change.

Thomas Reinsch made the connection that desertification is about soil health. You can have all the water in the world, but if the soil can't absorb it, then you are going to have floods and soil erosion. Malnutritioned soil = less food security and also = less carbon sequestration. Dr. Reinsch went through the US policy response to the Dust Bowl with the 1932 Department of Chemicals and something classification of land and the National Grasslands, the 1935 USDA Soil Conservation Service to combat desertification in the US and the NRCS and FDR's bottom up approach of conservation districts. He also mentioned that it takes 1000 lbs of water to grow 1 lb of corn, and this should be included in water allocation calculations.

Gary Peterson argued that the Dust Bowl in the Great Plains was a failure to understand the ecosystem, in particular, a failure of the writers of the Homestead Act to realize that farmers from the "East" (like Illinois) would not be familiar with appropriate farming practices in the arid lands of the Great Plains. Daniel Freeman was the first homesteader who settled in Gage County, Nebraska on the cusp of where wetter lands meet dry. Other farmers who settled in the more western, drier areas left unintended consequences. Plowing bared the surfaces and stimulated oxidation, which reduced the nitrogen supply capacity and lowered productivity. Steam tractors came along and were able to change more surfaces at a faster rate than animal powered vehicles. In contrast to the Midwest, cover is the key to sustainable farming practices in the Great Plains. Mr. Peterson experiments to grow corn in wheat stubble, for example so that the residue slows runoff and the rough surfaces slows evaporation. Both strategies protect the soil from raindrop impact and maintains water infiltration.

We are just now beginning to realize how livestock have historically played this role in roughing up ag surfaces. Shannon Horst from the Savory Institute explained how they are using these techniques in Africa and the US. She noted that the drylands are the largest terrestrial carbon sink but are neglected as such. She argued against the traditional climate change discourse that focuses on adaptation. An example she gave was planning that was happening in Tunisia, that a group that lost their grasslands were trying monocropping of prickly pear to teach the cattle to eat that. Unfortunately, they had no plan of what would happen when the unsustainable prickly pear eventually disappeared too. Instead, she thought that they could restore the grasslands to their original state and that would be a more sustainable resource for farmers.

But what is "the original state"? Jurgen Hoth pointed out that nature is socially constructed and showed three photos of three different times where we could potentially point to as the "original state" of the Chihuahauan Desert. Nature changes, so people need to agree on how they want to construct the past. Dr. Hoth also conducted a content analysis of several international documents on climate change and noted that the word 'desertification' was not used, or if it was, was only used in the title. He searched for other synonyms, and could not find them either. He realized that while in theory we know desertification and climate change are linked, we haven't been able to make a strong connection in application.

The room was full for the signing of the document, but only about 11 audience members held out until the end (only three hours). Scones and beverages were served, and next door was a student-run restaurant that serves food from a student run garden!