Overgrazing Leads To Desertification Essay

The greatest challenge that humanity will face in this century is how to halt climate change in its tracks. Carbon dioxide levels are increasing, the polar ice caps are melting, the seas are rising, the weather is more extreme, and the deserts are becoming larger. Yet, population is increasing and will continue to for a long time. People are still burning fossil fuels and are, in general, eating more meat. In 2009, the per capita meat consumption in the United States was 120.20 kilograms, which is equivalent to about 0.75 pounds per day (Chartsbin 2013). This incredible amount of meat consumption is very visible just outside my own backyard, which is just seven miles from one of the largest meat-packing plants in the world. Among its many consequences, meat consumption often goes hand-in-hand with overgrazing and is highly unsustainable. Overgrazing leads to desertification, which is in turn exacerbated by climate change. Because meat is very central to so many people’s diets, finding a solution to this issue is often very …show more content…
The current droughts in California threaten “America’s breadbasket” with huge production losses and soil degradation (Carroll 2015). On the other side of the world, the Aral Sea is an example of the catastrophic consequences of desertification. Though it is not directly tied to overgrazing, the shrinking of the Aral Sea is related to agriculture. The sea, which was once over 26,000 square miles (larger than West Virginia), is now just over 1,200 (smaller than Rhode Island) (Howard 2014). Located in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, the lake’s tributaries were dammed and diverted for irrigation by the Soviet Union starting in the 1960s. Over time, the government’s poor planning destroyed the lake and surrounding ecosystem, leaving nothing but a desert behind. If steps are not taken to halt desertification elsewhere, there may be many shrunken Aral Seas around the world in the