Pourquoi la désertification et les tempêtes de sable inquiètent ? • RFI

How to protect yourself from sandstorms and dust storms? Our environmental question of the day, and the stakes are high, we don't talk about it much, but the UN is raising this observation. Today, sandstorms and dust storms project two billion tons into the atmosphere each year and are dramatically more frequent today. Hello Simon Rosé. Hello. So how do we protect ourselves? Because it's a phenomenon with serious consequences. Yes, because these storms are certainly nothing new. They have existed since the night of the storms, but they are much more numerous today. This is particularly the case in Central Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. The cause, as is often the case, is partly human. Climate change, soil degradation, the main mechanism for these storms is, for example, the drying of lakes and ponds. And the consequences of their multiplication are heavy. Because they are not only more frequent, but also more intense. Among these consequences, we first think of health, respiratory diseases, but they are also heavy in the agricultural field, from the destruction of crops to the death of animals or the infestation of seeds. The UN reports total losses of crops in some African regions. Worse, these storms are partly caused by desertification, by the depletion of soils, phenomena that they amplify in return. With, therefore, agricultural consequences. Exactly. The question of soils is crucial. For example, Africa has the most fertile lands in the world, but it is also the most vulnerable continent, which can therefore be considered as a kind of double penalty. Ibrahim Thio is the Secretary-General of the UN Convention against Desertification. Soil degradation has been very rapid over the past 70 years. It is estimated that 60% of Africa's agricultural land has already been degraded. However, the population has been multiplied by at least six, so that the availability of land and water has become rarer, which would eventually lead to higher competition for access to land, which would obviously lead to migration. If we look at the situation in the Sahel countries, these are areas of emigration, essentially due to the fact that people can no longer produce. But then, in response, what can we do against sandstorms, to the progression of the desert? So there are solutions. There is a whole international work to put them into practice. You certainly know the COP for climate. You may know that there is one for biodiversity. Well, in Rwanda, there is a third one, the COP against desertification. This week, it is held in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, a meeting of its parties in Uzbekistan, because, as we recall, Central Asia is also very concerned about the phenomenon. Several levers have been put forward. First, the most basic is the generalization of models of monitoring and alerts in prevention of these storms. And as for global warming, we can also act to reduce its magnitude and damage. The main tool is this time the restoration of soils and wetlands. This allows both to reduce the intensity of these storms while limiting the vulnerability of the affected areas. The goal is to restore one billion hectares of degraded land by 2030. It is the equivalent on the surface of a country like Egypt.