Deserts on the move.

"Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away."
-Shelley

The damn things are moving fast.

NIGER "NIAMEY (AFP) - Niger's President Mamadou Tandja has called for international help to counter growing desertification which has already overrun two-thirds of the vast West African country." LINK

CHINA "GUIYANG, Jan. 14 (Xinhua) -- Worsening stone desertification is threatening the survival of about 450,000 farmers in southwest China's Guizhou Province, and they are in dire need of being relocated, local authorities have said." LINK

ALGERIA "Going in to 2007, the Sahara will have advanced to within 200 kilometres of the Mediterranean coastline of this North African state." LINK

ARMENIA "Following his own study of climate change and desertification in Armenia, geographer Ashot Khoyetsyan points to logging and other factors in desertification. " LINK