= Desertification process of land degradation in arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid areas, due to causes verie , including climatic variations and human activities [1] . The term desertification is configured so as a general land degradation in particular areas of climate, and not necessarily as the expansion of deserts (desertizzazione).
One of the effects most significant change in climate is the phenomenon of desertification of vast areas of the planet. It is not just global warming and expansion of deserts to cause this degradation and progressive decrease of water resources and soil productivity, but also many human activities, in particular excessive urbanization and environmentally incorrect (since it involves soil sealing , deforestation, high inputs of energy consumption and greenhouse gases), intensive farming practices that wear out the soil, models and lifestyles that involve unsustainable consumption of energy resources, water, food.
This means that desertification is now seen not as a phenomenon limited to certain regions historically in contact with the problem of dryness, but as an emergency that involves most of the planet and in particular new and more developed regions including the Mediterranean.
Desertification in the Mediterranean
With its 46 000 km of coastline, the region coast of the Mediterranean could rise to accommodate 96 million inhabitants in 2025 [2] , and is the destination of 33% of global tourists, which could become 300 million more in 2025. In addition, this region has to prepare to welcome millions of economic refugees pouring into these areas for sub-Saharan Africa due to, among other things, just the desertification that threatens their countries.
But the same Mediterranean region is already prey to desertification, with a drying up of soil tripled in the last 20 years and 30 million hectares affected by the phenomenon. Greece (36% of the territory), Portugal (28%) Spain (48%) and Italy (30% of the territory, mainly Puglia, Sicily, Basilicata and Sardinia) are the European countries most threatened. And in these countries than in other regions it is clear that the causes are human activities related to intensive agriculture, the tourism industry, coastal urbanization and the abandonment of territorial history, capable of proper management of resources and landscape.
New Paradigms
Global warming and drying involve a higher consumption of resources, energy and water to maintain living standards to which we are accustomed. They also have effects on climate-sensitive economies (agriculture, forestry, tourism ..) and cause the abandonment of agricultural areas and garrisons of the historical migration and, consequently, with further urbanization and demand for resources.
E 'then urgently rethink our criteria in terms of architectural and urban development, too often borrowed from northern European experience, more mature and advanced than ours, yet tuned to climatic conditions, environmental and economies other than those that are preparing to face Mediterranean regions. Instead, you must rediscover the environmental sensitivity of their traditional communities in Mediterranean re-propose the principles, along with modern technology to save energy and water, in a model of urban housing and is capable of generating sustainable adequate levels of comfort even in difficult climatic conditions such as those that lie ahead.
[1] definition proposed by the UNCCD (United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification), 1994
[2] Luciana Dolphins, Desertification and eco-refugees on the shores of the Mediterranean, Legambiente report, Civitas 2006
0 comments:
Post a Comment