Desert myths won't feed hungry mouths

THE Sahara is shrinking. Its long southern edge is turning green as farm yields soar and water tables rise (see “Africans go back to the land as plants reclaim the desert”). If this seems scarcely credible it is because it flies in the face of one of the most enduring environmental beliefs of our time – namely, that Africa’s deserts are spreading relentlessly thanks to cycles of drought, over-farming and overgrazing. But it just isn’t so. Even as drought looms in southern Africa, the larger arid area north of the equator is blooming – as it has been for…