From Richard Courtney
Allan Savory claims there is increasing desertification of much of the US
(Letters, 27 March, p 56).
On the contrary, a century and more ago much of the
US was cleared of forests and turned into farmland, and this probably destroyed
some species. But a recent increase in the efficiency of US agriculture is now
releasing land from farming.
Forests are regrowing on abandoned US farmland at such a great rate that it
seems the tree growth is consuming as much carbon dioxide as the total US
industrial emissions of this gas.
This forest regrowth can be expected to result in greater biodiversity
because existing species will enter the new forests and new species may evolve
with the growing forests.
Cheltenham, Gloucestershire
