Brian Griffith's Blog - Posts Tagged "desertification"
The sound of desertification
Opening paragraph from my book "The Gardens of Their Dreams," about the threat of desertification in a warming world:
"Over the past 7,000 years, a desert slowly spread through the center of the Old World. The affected regions had been wastelands before in previous arid ages. But this time human civilizations were on hand to witness the desiccation. Our ancestors watched as patches of desolation slowly appeared in the landscape, like holes in worn-out cloth. The drought-stricken trees shed their leaves in summertime, leaving a look of winter. The wind, rather than gusting through fields of rustling foliage, whistled in the naked branches. Next the bubbling creeks fell silent. At night, the chirruping of crickets and frogs slowly faded to a hush. At dawn, choruses of songbirds no longer greeted the sun. Herds of grazing animals migrated from the region, following the grass and rain. High in the sky, birds of prey circled without a sound. "
The Gardens of Their Dreams: Desertification and Culture in World History
"Over the past 7,000 years, a desert slowly spread through the center of the Old World. The affected regions had been wastelands before in previous arid ages. But this time human civilizations were on hand to witness the desiccation. Our ancestors watched as patches of desolation slowly appeared in the landscape, like holes in worn-out cloth. The drought-stricken trees shed their leaves in summertime, leaving a look of winter. The wind, rather than gusting through fields of rustling foliage, whistled in the naked branches. Next the bubbling creeks fell silent. At night, the chirruping of crickets and frogs slowly faded to a hush. At dawn, choruses of songbirds no longer greeted the sun. Herds of grazing animals migrated from the region, following the grass and rain. High in the sky, birds of prey circled without a sound. "
The Gardens of Their Dreams: Desertification and Culture in World History
The artist for my book cover
The painting used for my book cover (from 2001) was done by the Native Canadian artist Maxine Noel, and it's called "Seedings of Africa." It's one of a collection of works done to build relations between Canadian Native and African communities. After a series of droughts and famines in Sub-Saharan Africa during the 1980s. studies of aid donor lists showed there had been an extraordinary response of aid from Native Canadians. Efforts were then made to put Native and African communities in direct contact. As one part of this program, artists from Africa and Canada visited and painted each others' worlds. Maxine Noel's painting celebrates a "twinning" between Bunkpurugu, Ghana, and Thunder Bay, Ontario. Thanks again to the artist.
