DESERTS
The Earth is not a desert, but there are at least ten immense
deserts on its surface. Their boundaries are not well-defined
as they expand and contract, but mostly expand, under
the watchful eyes of satellites. In the driest of them all,
the Atacama Desert in Chile, not a drop of rain has fallen
for at least four hundred years. They are packed in between
the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn, although they
tend to escape those confines. Deserts cover tens of millions
of square kilometres; a third of the Earth’s land surface comes
under the scientific definition of desert. National borders are
buried beneath their sand and rock. They separate, but also
unite: the nine million square kilometres of the Sahara cover
twelve nations. On the edge between environmental assets
and liabilities, deserts are the sentries of climate change.
Sadly, as James Lovelock, the father of the Gaia hypothesis,
observed, it is much easier to create a desert than a forest.
In the meantime, other planets are revealing their deserts:
alien, and yet somehow familiar.
Messak Plateau, Sahara Desert, Libya
Paintings and drawings on the rocks bear witness to a past when people and animals lived in forests.
01_JAN
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Taklamakan Desert, China
Dunes up to 100 metres high move at a speed of 160 metres a year, threatening oases and villages.
03_MAR
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04_APR
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Date palm cultivations, El Oued, Sahara Desert, Algeria
Indiscriminate exploitation of the subsoil water resources accelerates the process of desertification.
05_MAY
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06_JUN
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Solar energy plant, Mojave Desert, California, USA
Renewable energy sources can transform the desert into a resource.
07_JUL
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08_AUG
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Darfur village, Sudan
The control of natural resources, made increasingly more difficult by climate change, triggers conflict between ethnic groups and causes forced migration.
09_SEP
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10_OCT
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Atacama Desert, Chile
Studying the planets in the solar system helps us understand the phenomenon of climate change on Earth.
11_NOV
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12_DEC
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Messak Plateau, Sahara Desert, Libya
24° 54’ N, 12° 12’ E
http://www.telespazio.com/calendar10/messak.html
Landsat-7 ETM+, courtesy Global Land Cover Facility
Taklamakan Desert, China
38° 41’ N, 79° 48’ E
http://www.telespazio.com/calendar10/taklamakan.html
Landsat-7 ETM+, courtesy Global Land Cover Facility
Date palm cultivations, El Oued, Sahara Desert, Algeria
33° 27’ N, 6° 55’ E
http://www.telespazio.com/calendar10/el_oued.html
COSMO-SkyMed © ASI/Italian MoD
Solar energy plant, Mojave Desert, California, USA
35° 01’ N, 117° 20’ O
http://www.telespazio.com/calendar10/mojave.html
GeoEye-1 © GeoEye Inc. 2009
Darfur village, Sudan
14° 21’ N, 24° 25’ E
http://www.telespazio.com/calendar10/darfur.html
GeoEye-1 © GeoEye Inc. 2009
Atacama Desert, Chile
24° 35’ S, 68° 59’ O
http://www.telespazio.com/calendar10/atacama.html
Landsat-7 ETM+, courtesy Global Land Cover Facility
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