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News articles on Erosion

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Mongabay.com news articles on erosion in blog format. Updated regularly.

Destruction of wetlands worsens global warming
(7/20/2008) Destruction of wetland ecosystems will generate massive greenhouse gas emissions in coming years, warn experts convening at an international wetlands conference in Brazil.


Forests cover 1/3 of U.S. but are responsible for 2/3 of its water supply
(7/16/2008) The single most important function of U.S. forests is their role in securing the country's freshwater supply at a time when water demand is surging but climate risks to forests are also increasing, say the authors of a new federal report released by the National Research Council.


Soil erosion: the future of Easter Island
(2/25/2008) Today the saga that is Easter Island's past is well known. The tragic circumstances that led to the downfall of its early civilization through starvation and war are of epic proportions. Many scientists agree that the real life scenario born from this isolated island serves as a warning, about the interrelatedness between scarcity of natural resources and conflict, for all mankind. However, current natural resource practices suggest that this lesson has fallen on deaf ears.


Rising Population puts strain on Soil
(8/30/2007) Soil degradation and vegetation loss may accelerate global warming, warned Iceland's President Olafur Ragnar Grimsson.


Pearl River Delta under Rising Water Threat
(8/30/2007) 1,153 square km (445 square miles) of land surrounding the Pearl River Delta in Guangdong Province, China may be engulfed by rising sea levels by 2050, reports Chinese state media. The cities worst affected will be Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong province, alongside Zhuhai and Foshan if nothing is done to combat the problem soon.


China to spend $2.1B to protect wetlands
(4/25/2007) China says it will spend more than $2.1 billion (16.5 billion yuan) to protect and restore its highly endangered wetlands over the next five years.


Loss of topsoil a global problem for agriculture
(4/17/2007) Throughout history civilizations expanded as they sought new soil to feed their populations, then ultimately fell as they wore out or lost the dirt they depended upon. When that happened, people moved on to fertile new ground and formed new civilizations.


Deforestation and erosion starving Malawi
(10/13/2005) Forest loss and erosion could doom Malawi to perpetual food shortages as the country's fertile soil is literally swept down to its rivers and flushed out to sea.


Impact of Deforestation - Soil Erosion
(3/1/2005) The loss of trees, which anchor the soil with their roots, causes widespread erosion throughout the tropics. Only a minority of areas have good soils, which after clearing are quickly washed away by the heavy rains. Thus crop yields decline and the people must spend income to import foreign fertilizers or clear additional forest. Costa Rica loses about 860 million tons of valuable topsoil every year, while the Great Red Island, Madagascar, loses so much soil to erosion (400 tons/ha) that its rivers run blood-red, staining the surrounding Indian Ocean. Astronauts have remarked that it looks like Madagascar is bleeding to death, an apt description of a country with grave environmental degradation and an ever-declining agricultural economy that depends on its soils. The rate of increase for soil loss after forest clearing is astonishing; a study in Ivory Coast (Cote d'Ivoire) found that forested slope areas lost 0.03 tons of soil per year per hectare; cultivated slopes annually lost 90 tons per hectare, while bare slopes lost 138 tons per hectare.



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