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When soil is stripped of vegetation, the bare topsoil soon dries out and is blown away by wind or washed away by water. This process is called erosion.

Erosion occurs naturally and is generally not a serious problem?unless man accelerates the process through poor land management. For example, the magazine China Today says that sandstorms, along with other factors such as deforestation and overgrazing, ?have accelerated the expansion? of desert areas. Unusually arid conditions in recent years have left China?s western and northwestern provinces susceptible to the cold Siberian winds that sweep across the land. Millions of tons of yellow sand and dust have been displaced, some reaching as far as Korea and Japan. Approximately 25?percent of China?s landmass is now desert.

The destruction of African soil has similar causes. ?By clearing forest to plant cereal crops,? says Africa Geographic, ?farmers have irretrievably destabilised the thin soils.? It is estimated that after a plot has been cleared of bush, within three years it loses up to 50?percent of its fertility. Thus, the magazine adds: ?Millions of hectares are already beyond recovery and millions more are heading that way as agricultural yields in some areas decline year by year.?

It is said that Brazil loses 500?million tons of soil every year to erosion. In Mexico the Department of Environment and Natural Resources says that 53?percent of the scrubland, 59?percent of the jungles, and 72?percent of the forests are affected by soil degradation. All told, says a report by the United Nations Development Programme, ?land degradation affects perhaps as much as two thirds of the world?s agricultural land. As a result, agricultural productivity is declining sharply, while the number of mouths to feed continues to grow.?

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because it holds down the trees and plants

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So all the chinooks have squash to eat. (Aquabats lyrics)