Every now and then, in environmental discussions folks will mention things like the Sahara Desert is slowly growing. What would happen if we were to reverse the process and shrink the Sahara, along with the other deserts that are expanding?
Obviously, it’s easier for humans to live in non-desert areas, but globally, would we be causing greater problems for ourselves if we totally eliminated deserts altogether? (I realize that some species would probably go extinct if deserts ceased to exist, but I’m speaking from a climate point of view, and not worrying about a sudden lack of scorpions or other desert creatures.) How would global weather patterns change? If the deserts (and admittedly not all deserts are hot dry places, so this wouldn’t apply to all of them) became lush forests, would the resulting forest fires cause more problems than adding huge patches of green spaces solve?