Satellite's-Eye View of Despoiled Africa

[progressoid]

The natural wealth of Africa has been plundered over the past 35 years, as illustrated by a new atlas of satellite imagery from the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP). Roads now lace the untamed tracts of the rainforest in Congo—second only to the Amazon in size—bringing bushmeat hunting and logging wherever they lead. In fact, the continent now loses 9.9 million acres (four million hectares) of forest a year, nearly one fourth of the world's total deforestation.

Vast mines for copper, phosphate, gold and diamonds dig into the landscape throughout the continent, and the quest for oil eats up land in Chad, Nigeria and Equatorial Guinea. Farming has taken a toll as well: 65 percent of the continent's farmlands suffer some form of damage, including erosion, which contributes to the loss of 50 metric tons of soil per hectare per year.

But it's not just the exploitation of natural resources driving environmental changes: Cities like Addis Ababa, Cairo and Dakar sprawl into the surrounding countryside—a reflection of the growing shift from rural to urban living that has exploded the latter from a city of a few hundred thousand to a major metropolitan area of 2.5 million people.

...http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=satellites-eye-view-of-africa&sc=WR_20080617


LAKE CHAD:
In 1972 Lake Chad boasted a thriving fishery and covered more than 10,000 square miles (26,000 square kilometers) with its shallow waters.





SWAMP CHAD:
The lake, which is the main water source for the 20 million residents on its shores in Chad, Cameroon, Niger and Nigeria, had shrunk by 2006 to less than 580 square miles (1,500 square kilometers). Less well-known lakes, such Mali's Lake Faguibine, are also disappearing.



More at the SLIDE SHOW: http://www.sciam.com/slideshow.cfm?id=satellites-eye-view-of-africa

[phantom power]

1. Epic fail.

[progressoid]

2. yep