Dirt Cheap?

David R. Montgomery (University of Washington) maintains that conventional farming and grazing practises, are compounding the effects of global heating, increasing the risk of desertification (https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/sep/02/desertification-barren-solution-famine-agriculture). Montgomery notes that desertification had been generally regarded as something that only influenced parts of Africa, Australia and Asia. It is now coming to Southern Europe and North America. Rather obviously, prolonged high temperatures, with droughts and wildfires, increases the risk of desertification. Farming practices, however, can result in soil degradation. Soil degradation is caused by the erosion of the fertile topsoil and/or the loss of water-holding, nutrient rich organic material. That reduces the ability of soil to hang on to any water it does receive. Montgomery suggests that replacing drought-tolerant plants in some locations, makes the problem worse. All these changes reduce the land's ability to support crops or grazing by livestock. Montgomery says that circa 20% of all land in Spain is at high risk of desertification. The same applies to much agricultural land across Greece, Italy and the Western United States. Increased desertification would obviously reduce the planet's ability to feed its rocketing human population. It might well also intensify the destruction of existing forests, to replace the agricultural land. That vicious circle would, of course, fuel further increases in global heating and its consequences. Farming practises can be changed to reduce soil degradation. It would be a good idea to urgently encourage modifications in practices on a global scale.