• Orange and red show the areas where the risk of human induced desertification is higher. As it can be immediately seen, the most affected areas are along the equator line in Africa. Developing countries such as India and the Middle East and Eastern Europe are also thought to be affected.
• This also goes together with natural deforestation and desertification.
• Desertification and droughts are major causes of ecosystem losses and species mass migration or extinction.

Megan Rowling

Water must be used more efficiently to meet rising food demand from a growing population amid climate-change pressures, experts say.

reuters // Reuters

LONDON, Feb 13 (Reuters) - Global warming will get worse as agricultural methods accelerate the rate of soil erosion, which depletes the amount of carbon the soil is able to store, a United Nations' Environment Programme report said on Monday.

PRETORIA, 14 November 2011 (IRIN) - Soaring temperatures and erratic rains brought on by a changing climate may radically alter water flows in the world’s major river basins, including the Limpopo in southern Africa, forcing people to give up farming in some areas, says a new study.

A global partnership is needed to tackle the desertification that degrades more than 12m hectares of arable land every year, affecting some of the poorest and most food-insecure people

Here are the legends, from top to bottom:

lakes

no desert

water flowing sand dunes

semi-flowing sand dunes

semi-fixed san dunes

fixed sand dunes

gobi desert

areas of extreme drought

U.S. Drought Monitor Map

Natural Flow of Colorado River at Lees Ferry, AZ from 1906-2003 with relation to City Population Growth

Drought Depiction of US at around july 2007

Map Depicting Water Infrastructure of Southwest US