Dear Madam,
I refer to Bob Sherwood’s letter in today’s Phoenix about how everything in regard to the Earth’s climate is just fine and entropy. Bob presents so much misinformation I don’t know where to start so I will stick with the easy target.
He states that “research has shown that the edges of the Saharan… are receding”. “Wow!” I thought when I read it, “Richard St. Barbe Baker and the Men of the Trees had a win” with their Saharan tree planting program.
A quick Google revealed I was wrong in thinking that. In fact, all the recent scientific research reports I could locate indicate quite the contrary situation. One recent journal article* will be sufficient to illustrate the point. It’s by a couple of research scientists at the University of Maryland. In it they state: “…the Sahara Desert has expanded significantly over the twentieth century, by 11%–18% depending on the season, and by 10% when defined using annual rainfall.”
In fact the only report to the contrary that I could find was in an issue of Forbes (a business magazine) from 2012** which published a column debunking claims that desertification was an issue. The author was (and still is) the President of the “Spark of Freedom Foundation” and is not a scientist.
Subsequently, Forbes has published reports detailing the scope of the worldwide desertification problem***.
Mr Sherwood might well have access to material that I don’t have. The challenge for him now is to document his argument and claims.
Yours
Albert Ross
Canowindra, NSW
REFERENCES
* “Twentieth-Century Climate Change over Africa: Seasonal HydroclimateTrends and Sahara Desert Expansion” NATALIE THOMAS AND SUMANT NIGAM Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Science, University of Maryland,http://www.atmos.umd.edu/~nigam/JCLIM.African.Sahara.
Desert.Expansion.published.29March2018.pdf
**https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamestaylor/2012/10/25/ contrary-to-what-you-hear-global-warming-has-beengood-to-africa/#6513309827f6
***https://www.forbes.com/sites/danielrechtschaffen/2017/09/18/how-chinas-growing-deserts-are-chokingthe-country/#1e764fd45d1b