Sadly, this phenomenon is going to continue, I believe, forever...or until Ma Nature decides she's had enough of human habitation.
A major cause of the problems in Africa can be seen around the world. If you look at the Earth from space, the rainforest is a belt of green around the equator. Just above this on either side of the rainforest are deserts. Evaporation from the rainforest goes up and over the desert areas into the temperate zones. As the rainforest is cut down, there is less water evaporation and the desert zone increases. This is occuring around the entire planet.
Humans are basically the dumbest creatures on the planet. They destroy their own environment without a thought. Rainforests have some of the poorest soils on Earth. Because of this, farming the area rapidly depletes the soil of nutrients, which means they have to cut down more trees to get more land for farming. The rainforest never recovers.
More and more reef is being destroyed in the Indo-Pacific. Most of the material is used for construction, not for the aquarium hobby as many would have us believe, but our passion does take a lot. What took millenia to build is destroyed in an instant by dynamite.
Scientists have been sounding the warnings for years, only to be ignored because the "needs of people come first."
Personally, I'm with George Carlin. We're just waiting for the comet.
Wayne
