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World's land turning to desert at alarming speed, United Nations warns
WCCO 4 ^ | 6/15/04 | Chris Hawley - AP

Posted on 06/15/2004 1:47:08 PM PDT by NormsRevenge

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To: TX Bluebonnet
That's okay, my backyard is becoming a swamplike jungle. I'm doing my part.

Same here. I've been trying to pour the foundation on my new home for two weeks. There's knee deep water in all the trenches. I'd be happy to donate this water for free to the UN.
41 posted on 06/15/2004 2:27:39 PM PDT by zencat (Visit my profile for MAGNETIC Bush/Cheney '04 bumper stickers!)
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To: NormsRevenge
Fossilized pollen and seeds, along with ancient tools like grinding stones, show that much of the Middle East, the Mediterranean and North Africa were once green. The Sahara itself was a savanna, and rock paintings show giraffes, elephants and cows once lived there.

So, this process probably started well before humans made any significant impact on the environment.

42 posted on 06/15/2004 2:27:45 PM PDT by Modernman ("I don't care to belong to a club that accepts people like me as members" -Groucho Marx)
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Weren't most modern day deserts forests in the past? But maybe I'm remembering my earth science of 30 years ago incorrectly.


43 posted on 06/15/2004 2:28:28 PM PDT by Dutch Boy
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To: xm177e2
The answer is simple: we have to increase C02 emissions to encourage plants to grow in those desolate regions.

LOL!Good one.

44 posted on 06/15/2004 2:28:58 PM PDT by expatpat
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To: kidd

That points out a problem with the Bering land bridge that people supposedly walked across last Ice Age. It was a thousand miles of desert. A major expedition might make it across, but a hunting party would not be interested.


45 posted on 06/15/2004 2:31:57 PM PDT by RightWhale (Destroy the dark; restore the light)
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To: I still care

That's exactly what the Brits did with the 18th Century(?)Enclosures Act, which solved the problem of overgrazing on common land ("The Tragedy of the Commons").


46 posted on 06/15/2004 2:32:27 PM PDT by expatpat
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To: NormsRevenge
From the mid-1990s to 2000, 1,374 square miles have turned into deserts each year an area about the size of Rhode Island

Lets see. The earth has 57,308,738 square miles of land mass. Say 10 million of that is already desert, so over 47 million habitable. At a rate of 1,374 miles a year turning into desert, in 34,000 years we're looking at a disaster starring a very very old Dennis Quaid in, "The Day After Tomorrow...34,000 Years From Now!"

47 posted on 06/15/2004 2:32:39 PM PDT by Bommer (RIP Ronald Reagan!)
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To: NormsRevenge

The UN could always start a "sand for food" program.


48 posted on 06/15/2004 2:32:47 PM PDT by auboy
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To: cryptical
How much will it cost our grandchildren if the US doesn't give the UN money to fight this problem?

Oh, brother! And how much will it cost our grandchildren if this U.N. announced crisis du jour turns out to be nothing more than a red herring to distract folks from the U.N. "Oil-For-Food" scandal, and money that might have been spent on medicinal research, technology, the arts and science -- things that would have raised the quality of our grandchildren's lives -- instead vanished,once again,down the bureaucratic rat hole?

49 posted on 06/15/2004 2:33:59 PM PDT by yankeedame ("Born with the gift of laughter & a sense that the world was mad.")
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To: Dutch Boy

The Sahara was green and inhabited during the Ice Age. It rained, there were rivers and lakes. It rained in Egypt so much they didn't rely on the Nile or its flooding.


50 posted on 06/15/2004 2:35:33 PM PDT by RightWhale (Destroy the dark; restore the light)
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To: I still care
I think the answer is private property ownership. No one cares about land they don't own, unless they can manage to get government funds for it.

Amen! Like the saying goes: "When everybody owns everything*, nobody takes care of anything."

(*a la socialism/communism)

51 posted on 06/15/2004 2:36:05 PM PDT by yankeedame ("Born with the gift of laughter & a sense that the world was mad.")
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To: kidd
Northern Europe desert? Was this before the Brits started carrying umbrellas?

At the Ice Age max, wasn't N Europe iced over?

52 posted on 06/15/2004 2:36:52 PM PDT by expatpat
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To: NormsRevenge
Its the End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine) Lyrics - Document Album

That's great, it starts with an earthquake, birds and snakes, an aeroplane - Lenny Bruce is not afraid. Eye of a hurricane, listen to yourself churn - world serves its own needs, don't misserve your own needs. Feed it up a knock, speed, grunt no, strength no. Ladder structure clatter with fear of height, down height. Wire in a fire, represent the seven games in a government for hire and a combat site. Left her, wasn't coming in a hurry with the furies breathing down your neck. Team by team reporters baffled, trump, tethered crop. Look at that low plane! Fine then. Uh oh, overflow, population, common group, but it'll do. Save yourself, serve yourself. World serves its own needs, listen to your heart bleed. Tell me with the rapture and the reverent in the right - right. You vitriolic, patriotic, slam, fight, bright light, feeling pretty psyched.

It's the end of the world as we know it.

It's the end of the world as we know it.

It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine.

Six o'clock - TV hour. Don't get caught in foreign tower. Slash and burn, return, listen to yourself churn. Lock him in uniform and book burning, blood letting. Every motive escalate. Automotive incinerate. Light a candle, light a motive. Step down, step down. Watch a heel crush, crush. Uh oh, this means no fear - cavalier. Renegade and steer clear! A tournament, a tournament, a tournament of lies. Offer me solutions, offer me alternatives and I decline.

It's the end of the world as we know it.

It's the end of the world as we know it.

It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine.

The other night I tripped a nice continental drift divide. Mount St. Edelite. Leonard Bernstein. Leonid Breshnev, Lenny Bruce and Lester Bangs. Birthday party, cheesecake, jelly bean, boom! You symbiotic, patriotic, slam, but neck, right? Right.

It's the end of the world as we know it.

It's the end of the world as we know it.

It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine...fine...

(It's time I had some time alone)

53 posted on 06/15/2004 2:38:41 PM PDT by Doomonyou (Molon Labe! FMCDH!)
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To: ChuckShick
Now, if we can only figure out a way to turn the liberals into sand.

Nah, I'd rather see them turned into salt. ;-)

54 posted on 06/15/2004 2:39:20 PM PDT by Wolfstar (He slipped the surly bonds of earth to touch the face of God. Thank you President Reagan.)
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To: NormsRevenge
Waaaah HOOOOO!!!


55 posted on 06/15/2004 2:39:20 PM PDT by ElkGroveDan
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To: Clara Lou; Squantos
We have no dust down here in Texas.

WHAT?????

56 posted on 06/15/2004 2:41:57 PM PDT by stands2reason (Everyone's a self-made man -- but only the successful are willing to admit it.)
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To: fat city
World Day to Combat Desertification

Party time!!
=========================

LOL!! Kegger at FC's place!

57 posted on 06/15/2004 2:43:49 PM PDT by yankeedame ("Born with the gift of laughter & a sense that the world was mad.")
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To: NormsRevenge

The UN should rename itself "The Tower of Dome."

They could wear black robes and read chicken entrails every day for a year and issue disaster warnings. Then to rescue them we'll send in 10 tank battalions to blow up the tower. We can film it and call it "The Day After the Day After Tomorrow." or "Repitition Breeds Insanity, Over and Over."


58 posted on 06/15/2004 2:44:27 PM PDT by sergeantdave (Gen. Custer wore an Arrowsmith shirt to his last property owner convention.)
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To: Clara Lou

Big Spring, Texas

59 posted on 06/15/2004 2:50:34 PM PDT by stands2reason (Everyone's a self-made man -- but only the successful are willing to admit it.)
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To: stands2reason

I don't live near there-- thank goodness.


60 posted on 06/15/2004 2:54:15 PM PDT by Clara Lou
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