*  Fred Pearce, “Africans go back to the land as plants reclaim the desert,” New Scientist 175, 21 September 2002, pp. 4–5. “Africa’s deserts are in retreat…Analysis of satellite images…reveals that dunes are retreating right across the Sahel region…Vegetation is ousting sand across a swathe of land stretching…6000 kilometers…. Analysts say the gradual greening has been happening since the mid 1980s, though has gone largely unnoticed.”