The Sahara Desert and Its Growth – What’s Going On

By:Khadija Nadeem Gr 9
It seems that the Sahara Desert, the second largest desert in the world, isn’t happy with its second-place position and is determined to take the number one spot. Studies show that the giant desert, which already occupies about 3.6 million square miles of the African continent, has grown roughly 10% since the 1920s. This is due to climate cycles which is completely natural, but also the man-made climate change which is a global threat to us all. " The trends in Africa of hot summers getting hotter and rainy seasons drying out are linked with factors that include increasing greenhouse gases and aerosols in the atmosphere," said Ming Cai, a program director in NSF's Division of Atmospheric and Geospace Sciences. To put it shortly, as the Sahara expands, the Sahel (a border region) retreats. This will put human societies and ecosystems at risk. The Africans who live there, lead largely agriculture-dependent lives. As the desert expands, rainfall data determines that multiple new acquirements of land are receiving less rainfall. Researchers are currently focusing on the Sahara but new data shows that it’s possible other deserts are also expanding. The African continent is one of the most vulnerable to climate change and yet its populace is among those least responsible for it, truly a tragedy.