THE devastating weather system El Niño may have a benevolent side.
Researchers in Holland say it could be harnessed to recover land that has been
degraded by overgrazing and desertification.
Ecologists Marten Scheffer and Milena Holmgren of Wageningen University in
the Netherlands say some arid areas are so badly degraded that they cannot
recover by themselves, even when grazing animals are removed. But doing this
when El Niño arrives—which happens about once every 3 to 6 years
and leads to a dramatic increase in rainfall in some normally dry
regions—could provide the impetus to make these areas…
