In El País last Monday, a brief article states that 34 Spanish provinces, comprising an upsetting total of 31.8% of Spanish territory, run the risk of becoming desert as the result of over-exploitation of their natural resources. "El territorio de las islas Canarias, toda la costa mediterránea, Andalucía, Castilla-La Mancha y Aragón padecen procesos de desertificación, un término que define la descompensación entre los recursos naturales y su capacidad de regeneración. Para algunos expertos, este diagnóstico, que figura en el borrador de trabajo del Programa de Acción Nacional contra la Desertificación, es dramático". For others it is less dramatic, since Spain, unlike many African and Asian nations, has the means to combat the problem by, for example, planting forests – though this seems to be addressing the symptoms, rather than the causes. In poor countries, the article states baldly, the prolonged effects of desertificación are usually irreversible. Once the wells and vegetation of a region are exhausted, the people have to either emigrate or die. The problem in Spain is worst in Almeria, parts of which are already desert, and where during the 70’s a lot of money was spent on irrigating stony ground; the people who made this investment are now, in a vicious circle, economically forced to stay there and to continue to continue exploiting it.
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