in 2008 paleontologist Paul Sereno
announced a remarkable find from the
Sahara where he had been looking for
dinosaur bones
he found bones all right but not the
kind he was looking for Sereno had
literally stumbled upon the largest
known graveyard of Stone Age people
including this mother buried with her
two children
twelve thousand years ago this gold
bleaching desert had been a lush green
lakeside oasis supporting a thriving
culture
and an abundance of wild game
then the Earth’s axis wobbled ever so
slightly the climate changed the desert
spread and the culture died today it is
mainly human activity that causes the
African deserts to spread over grazing
slash-and-burn agriculture deforestation
and overuse of groundwater are
exacerbating climate change
if current trends continue the continent
might be able to feed only 25% of its
population by 2025 change is part of our
history it’s certainly going to be part
of our future and it’s really incumbent
upon us for our own survival or success
as a species to be able to anticipate
and adapt to those changes and modern
man is far from safe millions of the
world’s poorest populations in 2008
suffered severe food shortages as crops
failed and food prices spiked widespread
riots broke out in Haiti where starving
families resorted to eating mud cookies
sold by vendors
the US produces a large percentage of
the corn that is consumed not just here
locally but worldwide excessive drought
excessive rainfall any of those factors
that reduce your yields will then have
an influence on that particular sector
of the economy which then has a ripple
effect on other parts of the
agricultural economy as well and an
insidious new threat to the world’s food
supply is on the rise a potentially
disastrous disease it’s a weak virus
previously found only in East Africa it
is spread as far as Iran and threatens
to push out into India and the rest of
Asia such plagues could wipe out our
ability to grow food on a large scale it
is with this in mind that scientists in
Norway last year completed a new
safeguard the Doomsday Seed Vault buried
deep into the side of an Arctic mountain
the new vault will house copies of seeds
from all known varieties of food crops
keeping them in case they are needed to
save a starving planet
but short of such a crisis the human
population showed no signs of shrinking
of 2008 growing to an estimated 6.7
billion
fortunately human ingenuity is showing
signs of expanding as quickly as our
numbers and in 2008 many of our greatest
breakthroughs came as we grappled with
ways to limit our impact on our earth
and survived
announced a remarkable find from the
Sahara where he had been looking for
dinosaur bones
he found bones all right but not the
kind he was looking for Sereno had
literally stumbled upon the largest
known graveyard of Stone Age people
including this mother buried with her
two children
twelve thousand years ago this gold
bleaching desert had been a lush green
lakeside oasis supporting a thriving
culture
and an abundance of wild game
then the Earth’s axis wobbled ever so
slightly the climate changed the desert
spread and the culture died today it is
mainly human activity that causes the
African deserts to spread over grazing
slash-and-burn agriculture deforestation
and overuse of groundwater are
exacerbating climate change
if current trends continue the continent
might be able to feed only 25% of its
population by 2025 change is part of our
history it’s certainly going to be part
of our future and it’s really incumbent
upon us for our own survival or success
as a species to be able to anticipate
and adapt to those changes and modern
man is far from safe millions of the
world’s poorest populations in 2008
suffered severe food shortages as crops
failed and food prices spiked widespread
riots broke out in Haiti where starving
families resorted to eating mud cookies
sold by vendors
the US produces a large percentage of
the corn that is consumed not just here
locally but worldwide excessive drought
excessive rainfall any of those factors
that reduce your yields will then have
an influence on that particular sector
of the economy which then has a ripple
effect on other parts of the
agricultural economy as well and an
insidious new threat to the world’s food
supply is on the rise a potentially
disastrous disease it’s a weak virus
previously found only in East Africa it
is spread as far as Iran and threatens
to push out into India and the rest of
Asia such plagues could wipe out our
ability to grow food on a large scale it
is with this in mind that scientists in
Norway last year completed a new
safeguard the Doomsday Seed Vault buried
deep into the side of an Arctic mountain
the new vault will house copies of seeds
from all known varieties of food crops
keeping them in case they are needed to
save a starving planet
but short of such a crisis the human
population showed no signs of shrinking
of 2008 growing to an estimated 6.7
billion
fortunately human ingenuity is showing
signs of expanding as quickly as our
numbers and in 2008 many of our greatest
breakthroughs came as we grappled with
ways to limit our impact on our earth
and survived
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