In terms of proximate factors and ultimate factors, what are the causes of land degradation? (Muir's perspective...)
proximate = too many cows, inappropriate cultivation, excessive irrigation
ultimate = too many people
I contend that the problems driven by our trying to increase the Earth's carrying capacity for humans using unsustainable practices. For example, remember that the soils we're using now took thousands of years to make.
As population pressures increase, the pressures to increase food production will also increase.
With those increases in pressure to raise more food, the land productivity (and thus, eventually the carrying capacity of Earth for humans) is likely to decrease.
It is ironic that we are faced simultaneously with population increases and decreases in carrying capacity.
In many lesser developed countries, patterns of land ownership, population density and poverty contribute to land degradation by forcing overuse of marginal lands.
Another cause of land degradation is misguided government policies. For example, in the mid 1970's, farmers in the US were encouraged by the government to plow up highly erodible land to expand crop production in response to higher world grain prices. However, the land was highly erodible -- sloping, dry, thin – and has since been taken out of cultivation. Unfortunately, some of this land that has recently been retired from production had never before been plowed; it was virgin grassland, which is one of the most endangered ecosystems in the US.
We will discuss ways to avoid problems with land degradation when talk about sustainable agriculture
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Page maintained by Patricia Muir at Oregon State University. Last updated Feb 11, 2007.