觀光、蓋監牢等壓力下 全球荒漠持續暖化

Global climate change, high water demands by prisons and tourism, as well as salt contamination of irrigated soils are changing the world's deserts, finds a new report launched today by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) to mark World Environment Day. The biggest casualties may be cities in the deserts of southwestern Asia and in the southwest United States.

Deserts will feel the pressure of global and regional instability, which the report forees will lead to more military training grounds, prisons and refugee holding stations.

"These intrusions import many people into deserts, generate considerable income and help upgrade infrastructure but have large environmental footprints, particularly with respect to water. In an insecure and competitive world, this kind of investment will continue, even grow," according to the UNEP report, The Global Deserts Outlook," the first thematic report in the Global Environment Outlook series of environmental assessments by UNEP.

This is the United Nations International Year of Deserts and Desertification. The main World Environment Day celebrations for 2006 are being held in the Algerian capital Algiers with the theme "Don't Desert Drylands!"

In the Algerian city of Ghardaia, World Environment Day celebrations centered on an international forum on desertification and sustainability as well as street festivities with a parade and dancing.

UNEP took care to emphasis the positive results that can be expected with careful management of desert environments.

“If the huge, solar power potential of deserts can be economically harnessed the world has a future free from fossil fuels," said Kakakhel. "And tourism based around desert nature can, if sensitively managed, deliver new prospects and perspectives for people in some of the poorest parts of the world."

Some Key Facts from the Global Deserts Outlook

Climate Change: "Profound changes with important implications for water supplies and people, and desert plants and animals, are likely in some regions unless greenhouse gas emissions are dramatically reduced," the report states.

Wider Water Issues and Agriculture: Underground water supplies, some formed over the course of a million years, are increasingly being drained of water for agriculture and settlements, including retirement resorts. The report suggests that ancient, ingenious methods of water management such as underground channels known as qanats and foggara in North Africa and karez in countries like Pakistan, might offer sustainable options for the future.

Biodiversity :"Large convoys of air conditioned caravans follow hunters across the deserts of Arabia, Kazakhstan and Sudan," the report warns, urging action to protect wildlife in deserts.
Probable impacts include those created by new roads, expanding settlements and other infrastructure developments that concentrate around desert montane areas.