Lake Chad Now At 20% Of Historic Extent - Climate, Farming Blamed - BBC

[hatrack]

One of the world's great lakes is disappearing. Lake Chad - shared by Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon, and Niger - has receded to less than 20% of its former volume. Global warming is being blamed, as well as water extraction.

The land is parched dry and dusty but the first hint that there is water comes with the growing numbers of Caltropis dotting the landscape. These strange, twisted plants have deep tap roots, and where they grow water is usually not far away.

But it did not seem very close as we left the scruffy town of Baga in a battered four-wheel drive jeep, lurching from rut to rut across what was once the lake bed itself. Just 30 years ago, water covered the whole area. Baga was a waterfront town. Now it is stranded many miles from the lake as the land around it becomes desert. The Sahara is moving southwards.

To gauge the true scale of the environmental disaster under way at Lake Chad you first have to look at it from space. From the unblinking eye of a satellite you can see the long decline. Once it was a huge inland sea, and just 40 years ago there was 15,000 square miles of water.

EDIT

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4906692.stm

[brokensymmetry]

1. A further disaster in the making

From the article:

"One advantage is that at least we've got somewhere to farm now," said one man, a fisherman turned farmer."

Yes, he can farm now. But in 10 years? I think not.

[Dead_Parrot]

3. In 10 years time...

...he can become an grave digger. It's likely to be a growth industry.

[NNadir]

2. Oh man...

There is so much to weep for.