Southern California Desert Degradation

On the daily, countless natural habitats in the world are disturbed and degraded by the persistence of human activities. Among the most affected of these habitats in the United States are the beloved deserts of the “wild west,” including the Mojave Desert, the Great Basin Desert, and part of the Colorado Desert, all of which are encompassed within the southern region of California. The desert ecosystem of Southern California has been negatively affected by intrusive human activities such as off-highway vehicle use, livestock overgrazing, construction of roads and utilities, military training exercises, air pollution and the spread of non-native plant species. Additionally, the urbanization and suburbanization from Los Angeles and Las Vegas and their increasing demand for landfill also has a detrimental affect on the natural conditions of the desert ecosystem. Although our intrusive human behavior is not any more intense in the deserts than any other natural habitat in the United States, what renders this ecosystem particularly fragile to recovery are the circumstances of its environment. The Southern California deserts are subject to high temperatures, intense sun, strong winds, low soil fertility and minimal rainfall, making natural restoration a much slower and far more difficult process. Plant restoration and biomass can take up to anywhere from fifty to three-hundred years while restoration to pre-disturbed conditions will take as long as three thousand years. This is an environmental concern that deserves recognition and in order to avoid further degradation of the desert ecosystem and other ecosystems around the globe progressive action and awareness needs to be instigated.

Why is Ecosystem Preservation Important?

Ecosystems are natural life-supporting systems for humans and all other species alike. It is part of the biological configuration of all species on the planet to require basic needs such as food, water, clean air, and a relatively stable climate in order to survive. However, an ecosystem is a delicate natural phenomena and cannot sustain itself without utilizing every component of its cycle. With that being said, humans are the central cause of all ecosystem abuse and destruction around the world in order to utilize the natural resources in an economic and industrial manner. In fact, as a result of human actions, the structure and functioning of the world’s ecosystems changed more rapidly in the second half of the twentieth century than at any other time in human history. This is detrimental to human health and well-being along with all the other species associated directly or indirectly. From a purely human perspective, changes in the cycle of nature can lead to irreversible chain reactions that are ultimately bad for health and well-being. For instance, affecting a local ecosystem can lead to an affect in landscape, which can lead to an affect on agriculture, which then would lead to an affect on people’s livelihoods, which can lead to possible migration, which eventually leads to all kinds of human hazards such as starvation, disease, or even political conflicts. The point is that the causal effects of disturbances in the environment to human health and well-being are often overlooked because they are complex and usually indirect. These chain reactions can be displaced in space and time and depend on countless different continuously altering forces.

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The Media

Contemporary media does not spread enough awareness and concern about existing and arising environmental issues. Dominating newspapers such as the The New York Times along with less prevailing newspapers such as The Los Angeles Times provide their readers with some of the scientific, social, and economic concerns that are associated with the environment but not to the extent it should be. Sure, words like “sustainability” and “climate change” are steadily picking up momentum in the media and in everyday conversation, sequentially becoming a more widespread and relevant global concern. However, a persistent pattern among environmental media from what I have observed is that they usually focus too much on the science and politics of the situation and lack on what is really important, behavioral suggestions or solutions that can prevent an environmental issue from becoming catastrophic. Regardless of the fact, your typical reader doesn’t want to change his or her behavior or lifestyle. Instead, all the scientific and political coverage provides them with the illusion that science will ultimately be solution to all environmental problems. The point of this blog is to cover and inform my readers of environmental concerns that do not have an easy and purely scientific solution, topics that go beyond what your average The New York Times reader wants to know.