Was Vancouver Riots Behavior Normal

Background information Vancouver riot was experienced during a match between the Canucks, Boston and Bruins in competition for the Stanley Cup. It was during the finals when Boston Bruins won 4-0 over the Canucks that the youths became violent, burning down buildings and vehicles and even injuring fellow human beings (CBC News).Advertising We will write a custom research paper sample on Was Vancouver Riots Behavior Normal? specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More It is not a surprise to see youngsters rioting after a match, and in the process, engaging in acts that eventually lead to regrets, History, overtime, has  confirmed this to be a normal occurrence after such an incidence is experienced in various places of the globe (Stepney). This has resulted into research carried out with the sole purpose of identifying whether there could be some kind of abnormality associated with the form of behaviors that are part of the rioting that usu ally lead to massive losses for both property and human life. Results conclude that this is normal as it has so many factors contributing to it such as alcohol and mob reasoning that tends to interfere with an individual’s normal reasoning. According to CBC News many people are always left wondering how young and sound youth should engage in such actions that result into a lot of harm that costs their outstanding reputation to the public and, even in extreme cases, leading to loss of job and rejection (Smith 1). However, considering all the possibilities that are responsible for such moves, it becomes sensible to conclude that they are quite normal occurrences that are to be expected especially in crowded areas. It is this very same reason that qualifies the Vancouver riots normal incident. Reasons behind considering Vancouver riots normal Just like Smith (2) argues, it becomes difficult for people to reason out well once they are in a group, in such cases the limbic system i s left to operate instead of the frontal lobe that is responsible for proper reasoning. At this point, the involved crowds usually act out of emotions, which can be either negative or positive. The ultimate results for the actions involved entirely depend on the kind of emotions that drive the crowd. More often, emotional activities such as sports that entail screams, shouts and other sorts of noise, which can serve as stimuli, lead to the former part of the brain functional, thus leading into some kind of reaction such as riots. Individuals stop thinking as they should and act as groups; this is dangerous as people involve themselves into intolerable acts unlike if they are on their own.Advertising Looking for research paper on social sciences? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Group brain is risky at a time because people make subliminal moves without reflecting on the consequences.  As illustrated during the Vancouver riots , Nathan, young man from a well- off background, is captured by the media in the very act of burning a police vehicle and later apologizes for his own conduct (Smith1). Such cases are often, which can lead people  in  committing unethical activities. The effect of group brain is that it transforms an individual. For instance, when such rioting groups are separated, they tend to reason in the appropriate manner, meaning that their frontal lobe is at work. This gives an answer as to why the members involved during the Vancouver riots came out apologizing for their behavior as an individual (Smith 1). Smith continues to talk of dispersing people before they form groups also attempting to cause distraction that help them not to stray from their normal reasoning as measures to ensure peace during an event such as sports (Smith). According to Davis (348), usually a crowd is a group or gathering, with no organized structure, it comprises of assembly of people in real -time with each me mber having an individualistic benefit. Crowds become socially united by virtue of being physically together, and as such, any happening within the vicinity can influence them to act in a very crude manner. Crowds do not have any set goals and even have no future expectations of coming back together; this gives an explanation as to why they will always act without reason, leading to massive destructions. Usually, no distinction can be made between individuals because they all tend to have a similar reasoning, this makes what happened at Vancouver a normal phenomenon. Influence is also another factor that can lead to violent behavior. Influence is so powerful that no one wants to be rejected by friends or feel out of place. For this reason, people comply with any type of behavior, however, unethical it is (Pendry). According to Stepney alcohol is the leading source of behavioral variation in human beings; this is because it affects the body chemistry leading to a change for adrenalin e produced. This has an impact on how the brain works. Alcohol and nutrition also have some impact on the way the prefrontal cortexes works.Advertising We will write a custom research paper sample on Was Vancouver Riots Behavior Normal? specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More This part of the brain develops much later in life. Thus, owing to the fact that people actively involved in the riot were teenagers, it gives a guarantee of their limbic system at work thus leading them to make decisions and act out of emotions. The point that these youngsters were drunk and had a poor diet gives an additional confirmation that the riot was just a normal occurrence. Efforts by the police to close bars and other liquor source did not bear fruits as they had already taken it. Apart from alcohol, passion is also a significant stakeholder in riots. This is in the sense that all individuals in the group have a team to support. The success or failure of the group support will undoubtedly lead to some kind of reaction being negative or positive. It is this combination of reactions, which can lead to brutality. In an event, of trying to support a team; one has a passion for and has invested time, money and energy. After loss by the home team during the Vancouver event, fans were subjected into stress, which is a further trigger for emotions. True to Smith’s argument, on the maturity of the brain, the young children and grownups left the scene after they sensed some kind of threat that could result from their home team defeat thus leaving the youths behind who eventually succumbed to their emotions thus causing chaos. In other cases, spectators trigger, or attempt to provoke fans making them crazy eventually resulting into violence (Smith 5). According to Smith, this event was quite normal. Because, the reactions that  led  into such actions were distinct. To them, emotions have a big role in controlling ones actions becau se they affect brains normal functioning thus influencing the manner in which one reasons. Smith (4) gives fire as an important impulse that arouses emotions. This supports Vancouver riot as normal because it is just immediately after a fire outbreak that the crowds turned violent leading to more and more fire set ups, destruction of property such as breaking of buildings glass windows and a lot of looting. Fire flames are believed to cause some kind of fear and as such some kind of reactions are expected. Vancouver riot was not the first one to be seen or heard of, there are such more incidences reported all over the globe whereby a lot of damage for both property and human life is encountered. Such riots include those encountered during the European Cup Final in 1985, 2000 South Africa- Zimbabwe match, 2000 American championship and many more. In all these riots, fans acted without reasoning just like after the Vancouver finals (Stepney). Contrary to the above-discussed reasons is the idea that some percentage of men went to the field with the intention of causing chaos, and they were there just to start something like setting a vehicle on fire so that they induce others (Smith 4). Their aim was to create havoc in order to get a chance for looting and engage in other animalistic actions.Advertising Looking for research paper on social sciences? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Conclusion It is in order to conclude that when a group of people comes together without a common goal to achieve; social crimes such as riots are likely to occur. Many factors come into play such as the above-mentioned including group brain, passion, alcohol and many more. Brains at work during such moments are not the right ones due to some kind of stimulation. Individuals do not reason out on their own while in a crowd as such, their reasoning is usually impaired resulting into unexpected actions that cause regrets at the end of the day. It is in order to claim the riots at Vancouver a normal happening because all the possible factors leading to such behavior were in place. Works Cited CBC News. Riots Erupt in Vancouver after Canucks Loss. 2011. Web. Davis, Kingsley. Human Society. New York, the Macmillan Company, 1933. Pendry,Louise. Carrick, Rachael. Doing What The Mob Do: Priming Effects on Conformity. European journal of social psychology, (31), pp. 83-92 Smith, Charlie. Evol utionary Biology, the Prefrontal Cortex, and the Stanley Cup Riot in Vancouver, 2011, Web. Stepney, Chloe. Christian Science Monitor: Vancouver Riot and 5 Other Infamous Melees in Sports History, 2011, Web. This research paper on Was Vancouver Riots Behavior Normal? was written and submitted by user Briella Randolph to help you with your own studies. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly. You can donate your paper here.

Short Term Goal Essay Sample

Short Term Goal Essay SampleWhen it comes to a short term goal essay, these essays are written as part of the elective courses, usually in high school. For these courses, students write for extracurricular activities or club memberships.The competition for scholarships is stiffer than at any other point in time. And the requirement for admission into any university can vary from state to state and from school to school. It is therefore important to have a comprehensive short term goal essay.A short term goal essay is written in answer to a question, basically whether a student wants to enter a specific program and pursue a specific major. As you can imagine, this may be quite difficult, but not impossible, especially if you can pinpoint which courses you wish to do, what level you would like to pursue, and what your major should be.The form for writing a short term goal essay is no different from that for an essay on a graduate or professional application. But there are some differen ces between undergraduate and graduate applications, as well as different rules for college admissions. In graduate school, almost every student applies for admission to a given program, but the rules are stricter about what sort of students are admitted.There are some very specific things to remember, though, when writing a term goal essay. Because, when looking at a complete term goal essay, the only variable that should affect what kind of essay is submitted is the subject, and the guidelines for writing one are more lenient.The only thing you should keep in mind is that the essays have to be solid and well-written. Having a minor or major mistake could make the difference between the essay being read or ignored. Also, you should ensure that the grammar and style are appropriate to the type of essay you are submitting.Writing a short term goal essay is an important thing for high school students. It has to be a comprehensive essay. You have to target your essay towards your chose n program or major, and build up your GPA through effective grammar and spelling.

Political Theater essays

Political Theater essays How does one define political theater' Those who favor conservative or rightwing views, first think of it as leftist propaganda. Individuals who enjoy mainstream plays and straightforward plots, see it as one-sided and pedantic. It is true that inferior productions of these performances can be dogmatic and strident, but every art form has its detractors. However, political theater at its best emphasizes an important societal issue of the day and delivers a message to viewers of all backgrounds and interests. It wishes to be anything but a political party line or single-dimensional in nature. Audiences with a wider view consider political theatre ranging far outside mere polemics. As playwright and journalist Ben Winters states, "political theatre can also be defined as exploring themes more universal and central to society itself, especially when that society defines itself as politically conscious." Adds playwright Jessica Blank, "First and foremost, what we wanted to do was make a good piece of theatre, political or not. If the piece also has a purpose, it can serve that purpose better the better a work of art it is." Surely, El Teatro Campesino Theatre and Bread and Puppet Theatre exemplify this higher level of political Peter Schumann formed The Bread City's Lower East Side. It was named for the coarse, flavorful sourdough bread that was given out at its performances, and for the grave, evocative puppet figures that were the theatre's main performers. During the 60s decade, Bread and Puppet took to the streets, creating outdoor shows, giving expression to neighborhood issues and taking part in peace parades. Since then, it has included work in many different styles, from simple ten-minute performances that can be put on by two people in the street to that require casts of twenty or more. Pupp ...

Words Ending in -ly Arent Always Adverbs

Words Ending in -ly Arent Always Adverbs Words Ending in -ly Aren’t Always Adverbs Words Ending in -ly Aren’t Always Adverbs By Mark Nichol Ask anyone to name a distinguishing characteristic of an adverb, and the reply might be that such a word ends with -ly. Although that is often true, some adverbs, such as fast, lack the ending. For this reason, they are known as flat adverbs. In addition, many words ending in -ly aren’t adverbs. Many adjectives end in -ly (which means- and is cognate with- â€Å"like†), including some that are also adjectives in their â€Å"flat† form. For example, dead and deadly are both adjectives. Deadly may look like an adverb, but one cannot say that one person stared deadly at another person; a correct treatment would be to employ deadly as an adjective and use the noun form of stared: â€Å"He gave her a deadly stare.† A more prominent error is to use timely as if it were an adverb, as in â€Å"She was instructed to complete the report timely.† But it is an adjective, and should be treated as such, as in â€Å"She was instructed to complete the report in a timely manner.† Some words ending in -ly serve as both adjectives and adverbs, such as friendly, likely, and stately. (Other adjectives that look like adverbs but serve only the former function include costly and worldly.) Others, which do not have root words, include early and ugly (both adjectives and adverbs) and burly and grisly (which are only adjectives). Occasionally, an adjective ending in -ly can be converted into an adverb by changing the ending to -lily, but words like friendlily and uglily are rare in writing and almost unheard of in speech. Many adjectives are merely nouns referring to people and with -ly attached, as in the case of brotherly, neighborly, and scholarly, or pertaining to time (for example, monthly) or direction (for example, northerly). Note that many other nouns also end in -ly, such as assembly (based on the verb assemble) and bully (where the ending is a result of the pronunciation of the source word from another language), and some verbs do, too, such as comply and reply. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Spelling category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:100 Whimsical Words50 Synonyms for "Assistant"If I Was vs. If I Were

Faculty of Business Environment and Society Essay

Faculty of Business Environment and Society - Essay Example I began by explaining to the producer what the requirements and contents of a legally binding agreement actually are, and how they apply specifically to this case. I also gave a general summary of what the show could expect, as per liabilities and legal redress, if the hostess backed out or tried to renege on the deal. The conversation was long and extensive, covering the main points of the legal issues as outlined herein. The first issue I advised Simon on was the need to be careful in what he might assume to be small talk or simple, informal negotiations, because one needed to consider that oral and written contracts are considered to be on the same standing when it comes to law. In order to take this into account, I advised, the director should be explicitly clear with Davina when they were negotiating informally, and in the best case scenario, to have a legal advisor present at all formal negotiations. This is not to say that if the two had drinks together and Simon promised the moon to Davina while under the influence all would be binding, but simply the need to be clear and careful in all communications. At this point, I decided it was a good time to explain that the common law accepted both objective and subjective proofs of legal contract agreements. As Mindy Chen-Wishart explains in Contract Law: â€Å"The subjective approach, which favors what a party's actual intention is, regardless of appearances; and The objective approach, which refers to how a reasonable person would interpret a party's intention from his conduct in all the circumstances.† (Chen-Wishart, 2007) Chen-Wishart also quotes Smith vs. Hughes (1871) as the main case law precedent related to the objectivity test, which posits a test of â€Å"reasonability† to determine how the average person would interpret a party’s intention in negotiation in forming a contract as decisive. (Chen-Wishart, 2007) When Simon asked how he could make sure he was not bound by informal ag reements or understandings when talking with business clients, I reiterated this was the overriding need for keeping legal representation present at all times when officially discussing business terms. While the handshake agreement remains popular in some circles, it is a dangerous way to conduct business in modern times, I concluded, precisely because of the lack of witnesses and clarity of situation involved in private, two-party negotiations. After this, Simon asked exactly what requirements were considered most important to make a contract legally binding for all parties following the initial negotiation. While there is a broad corpus of case law referencing contracts, I replied, the main factors could be considered: 1. â€Å"Agreement - where one party makes an offer and the other accepts it; 2. Consideration - where one party gives something in exchange for something from the other party; 3. Intention - where both parties intend to abide by the contract; 4. Capacity - where b oth parties are mentally capable of understanding a contract; 5. Genuine consent - where both parties agree to the contract of their own free will; and 6. Legality - where all of the parts of the contract are legal.† (Victorian Law Foundation, 2011) The principle of agreement, I said, could be applied to either the verbal or written contract and was based on mutual

How Schools Kill Creativity Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

How Schools Kill Creativity - Essay Example According to Ken Robinson, recently the system of education has been built in the way that is very utilitarian. Education was never a public system before the 19th century. The educations primary goal is to meet the industrialism need. The effect of industrialism still exists in the today’s school system. Most countries do believe that citizens who do provide abilities of work areas useful citizens and are highly valued more than other citizens of the state (Robinson, 2006). In recent times with the experienced population growth, people have great opportunities to get into college. According to Ken Robinson in the next 30 years, from UNESCO findings many people around the globe will be graduating from colleges. The number is much greater than what history has ever recorded. Contrary to many people having the opportunity of joining college, a degree is not as important as it was taken during the past. Having a mere degree cannot guarantee anyone a job anymore unlike n the past. Today many university graduates go home to carry on playing video games merely because they a masters degree to get a job where in the past you only needed a bachelors degree. It is a process of academic inflation that indicates that the whole system of education is moving beneath our feet. Another significant aspect that contributes to schools killing creativity is that students spent a lot of time on humanity subjects such as political science classes and history classes rather than mathematics and sciences (Robinson, 2006). In most countries around the globe, many students spent the least amount of time on art classes that are usually considered as the admission test of most regular universities. In addition, some subjects are considered more important than others in the art are. For example, Art and Music are given a great importance in most cases and Dance and Drama are viewed as less important.

Encroachment in the North East Region of Nigeria

Encroachment in the North East Region of Nigeria DESERTIFICATION OR DESERT ENCROACHMENT can result from a change in climate or from human action, and it is often difficult to distinguish between the two. This has commonly led to confusion and misconceptions. A temporary or long-continued deterioration of climate may accentuate the harmful consequences of human occupation of the land and vice versa. It has often been suggested that mans activities have resulted in climatic deterioration, but this is difficult to substantiate. In any case it is important to attempt to assess the relative contribution of climate and man in the process of desertification in order to decide on the ameliorative measures that can best be taken and to estimate the likelihood of their success. Deserts are not expanding everywhere in Africa. Irrigation has converted what had been desert into highly productive cropland; afforestation has at least locally reclaimed the waste. However it is widely thought that the Sahara, the Kalahari and other desert and semi-desert regions are expanding. Why should this assumption be made? It has not always been based, I would suggest, on sound evidence. Students of classical writings in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries were led to conclude that North Africa had been much more highly productive in Roman times. Many of them were inclined to explain the deterioration in terms of desiccation, though as early as 1828 the Copenhagen botanist Schow showed that it was unlikely that the temperature and rainfall of the region were very different in classical times from his own. Colonial administrators in the early twentieth century, comparing conditions at the tropical desert margins with those described by late nineteenth century explorers and seeing the ruins of ancient imperial capitals in the Western Sudan, also convinced themselves that the rainfall was diminishing Foresters and agriculturalists dismayed by the destructive land use practices of cultivators and graziers, so different from those they knew in north-west Europe, warned the governments of the African colonies of the dangers that threatened. As a result the idea of desert expansion, of an advancing Sahara, became firmly rooted  in the minds of the public at large. At the present day we find popular works on environmental deterioration conveying the same messages. Thus the Ehrlichs write the vast Sahara desert itself is largely man-made, the result of overgrazing, faulty irrigation, deforestation, perhaps combined with a shift in the course of a jet stream. Today the Sahara is advancing southward on a broad front at a rate of several miles per year. The recent dry years and their consequences may seem to substantiate such crude assessments of the situation. The African deserts are not man-made dustbowls; they are to be ascribed primarily to the continents geographical position. Africa lies almost entirely within 30 ° of the equator and a large part of its total area is occupied by dry descending air and receives little rain. Furthermore, the temperatures at low altitudes are generally high throughout most of the year so that water losses from land and water surfaces are high, especially in the tropical regions of low rainfall and relative humidity. The Sahara and the Kalahari are to be explained primarily in these terms. The Namib desert is associated with the cold Benguela current offshore, and in East Africa locally dry and semi-desert areas lie in the lee of highlands which have already drained the moist air masses from the oceans. Nevertheless, there are very extensive marginal areas where land use practices determine whether they shall be productive or unproductive in the long term. A great deal has been learned about African deserts in the last few decades. Aerial and space photography and the work of scientists in a number of fields have greatly extended our ability to appreciate the nature of the desert lands and the processes at work on their margins. We have the long series of publications of UNESCOs Arid Zone Research Symposia; there have been WMO and FAO studies of semi-arid regions; the University of Arizona has published Deserts of the World, an appraisal of research into their physical and biological environments (1968) and Arid Lands in Perspective (1969). The publications of the Pan-African Congresses on Prehistory and the Quaternary, of ASEQUA (Association Senegalaise pour lEtude du Quaternaire de lOuest Africain), and of Dr van Zinderen Bakker in his series on the Palaeoecology of Africa have  brought together the results of the investigations of a host of geologists, geographers,  archaeologists, botanists and other specialists, all of whose w ork has a bearing on the subject we are considering. Soil scientists and hydrologists, foresters and agriculturalists, anthropologists and historians have all made their contributions to our pool of information and we should now be in a much better position to view the whole question of desertification in its true perspective than were our predecessors a generation ago. Let us try to do this, by examining first the question of changing climates, then the nature of human interference, and finally the ways of measuring desert encroachment and the possible means of taking action against it. It has not been found possible to distinguish clearly any simple long term trends or regular periodicities in the climate, though many attempts have been made to do so, and it is necessary to adopt an empirical historical approach to the subject. In tracing what is known of the history of Africas climate it is useful to gain perspective by looking at the changes over the last century against the background of the last several thousand years. As pointed out by R. O. Whyte, we should distinguish major changes in climate, in or out of pluvial lasting thousands of years, from minor changes lasting hundreds of years, and from variations or trends which are experienced for 10 to 50 years.1 Each time-scale has its own biological significance. The shorter period variations are superimposed on the longer period fluctuations, and we must recognize  that as we attempt to penetrate further into the past, so our ability to distinguish minor oscillations diminishes and only the major changes can be detected. The role of man:- Mans role in desert encroachment is a very ancient one. He has known how to make fire since late Acheulian times; for almost 10,000 years he has herded his animak at the desert margins and grown his crops in the more favoured areas. He has established large settlements and cut wood for fuel and buildings over a similar period. Burning of the vegetation is possibly not a very important agency in the process of desertification; grass and trees in vulnerable areas are generally too sparse to burn readily. An exception to this general rule might be woodland alongside watercourses which has probably been largely eliminated in many semi-arid regions of Africa, possibly by fire. Gallery forest is a prominent feature of the savanna lands, and the concentration of what vegetation there is in deserts like the Sahara alongside watercourses is very striking. In the intermediate zones, streamside vegetation is sometimes less evident than one might expect it to be. Burning might possibly be the ex planation. A careful study of ERTS imagery would throw much light on the timing and areal incidence of burning. Heavy grazing by wild animals cannot be entirely ruled out as a cause of desert encroachment in the past. Certainly the eighteenth and early nineteenth century accounts of the enormous herds of antelope at the margins of the Kalahari and in the arid parts of Kenya, for example, suggest that their effect on the vegetation must have been very great. Animal populations increase and decrease in waves and the peak populations may not coincide with the maximum availability of food. However, the balance between available food and the bio-mass is probably better kept by wild animal species with varied food preferences than by man and his livestock. It seems likely that browsing and grazing by wild animals may maintain grassland conditions and that with their replacement by domestic animals woodland made up of thorny species of shrubs and trees may replace the grass. This seems to have occurred notably in the Karoo of southern Africa in recent decades. Bush has moved east and north replacing sweet grass veld, while extensive areas in the west are said to have become virtual desert. The nomads and their herds of cattle, roaming the margins of the Sahara, resemble game animals on Serengeti in adjusting their movements to the availability of water and pasture. However their movements have been increasingly restricted by political frontiers, taxation arrangements, and the occupation of grazing land by agriculturalists. Particularly important in this respect are the dry seasons grazing lands that have been taken over for irrigation. At the margins of the Kalahari, the pastoralists of eastern Botswana live in large villages and take their herds out over the extensive gracing land to the west in the dry season. This seems to be a sensible response to the natural conditions. However, there is always a tendency for the herds to build up in good years and then the numbers are kept high in dry years so that the pastures are eaten out. In recent years the risks of desertification as a result of overgrazing has increased as a result of three factors: The increase in numbers of livestock in many areas, e.g., north-east Nigeria. It would be useful to have more information about this. Doubling of numbers in a decade seems to have occurred in some areas, although livestock numbers are notoriously inaccurate. The increasing proportion of cattle in small herds often belonging to sedentary cultivators and herded by small boys, who cannot wander far, resulting in local overgrazing while other areas with pasture -main ungrazed. The provision of water in certain areas, such as parts of the artesian basin near Lake Chad, resulting in cattle remaining near wells and eating out the grazing round about instead of moving off to the rivers and other areas with dry season water and grass. The risks of serious deterioration are greatest when a succession of good years is followed by a period of long-continued drought. Woodcutting is a serious matter in many areas. Pastoralists are partly to blame. In places like Tibesti they cut foliage to feed their camels and use branches to build enclosures for their goats. However it might be noted that a considerable part of the woody growth in some areas springs from posts that were used for the enclosures and have taken root. Another threat comes from the demand for fuel in towns. The people in the surrounding countryside find the sale of wood to the townpeople a useful supplement to their meager cash incomes. K. J. Mortimore and J. Wilson have estimated that nearly three-quarters of Kano citys firewood consumption of some 75,000 tons per year for its population of 300,000, is brought in by donkeys mainly from within a radius of about 20 km. Although there is a return cargo of manure (over 10 per cent of the total applied to the intensely cultivated fields around the city), this trade represents the felling of thousands of trees every year. As Kano and simi lar towns grow at rates of 5-10 per cent annually, one can expect the woodland around to become very sparse. Alongside roads, at a distance from the larger settlements, wide areas are also being cleared by people who add to their income by making charcoal which is then carried into town by passing lorries. When the woodland has disappeared from such areas only animal dung remains for fuel for local consumption, and all the sylvan produce, honey, fruits and beans, medicaments and so on, are lost. Woodland in agricultural areas, as in the Sudan zone and the Sahel, is particularly important. It provides foodstuff for animals and man; it brings up nutrients from below that are released to the base-poor sandy soils from the decaying leaves and from the substances washed off the leaves; it brakes the speed of the wind, reduces the rate of evaporation at the end of the rains and the risk of soil blowing away towards the end of the dry season, and it provides shade for man and beast. Not least, it has an aesthetic value in improving the appearance of the landscape. Particularly important is the Winterthorn, Acacia albida, which is in leaf during the dry season and yields beans from great woody pods before the rains come. Multiplication of this tree should be  encouraged throughout the Sudan and Sahel. Cultivation in marginal areas during periods of higher than normal rainfall is especially dangerous, and is perhaps the main cause of desertification against which it may be necessary to take preventive action. When dry years follow years of relative plenty, ploughed soil-or soil from which the sparse cover of natural plants has been eliminated by cultivation-is at the mercy of the winds. The fine clays and silts are carried away as dust, and the sand drifts into dunes.The effect is likely to be irreversible except at great cost. Measuring the rate of desert encroachment In 1882 land classified as either desert or wasteland amounted to 9-4 percent of the total land on Earth. In 1952 it had risen to 23-3 percent. I give this quotation not because it is true but because it is meaningless. No definitions are given and it is not dear whether the difference between the figures is the result of the spread of desert conditions or, much more likely, whether definitions of desert and availabi lity of knowledge were different on the two occasions. However, it does bring out the point that it is extremely difficult to measure and state in numerical terms the rate of desert encroachment-though less difficult now than it was in the past. In the past there has been a good deal of reliance on such indicators as the  movement of towns and tribes, and on the chance observations of travelers and the tales they were told. Writing in 1921, F. Migeod noted that the capital of Kanem was shifted to positions successively further south; Bovill brought together additional historical evidence of the encroachment of the Sahara on the Sudan. Both were writing soon after the dry period of the early twentieth century. In 1935 E. T. Stebbing produced a map of West Africa showing the present advance of sand and attempted to estimate its rate of progress. The basis for all such calculations was very flimsy, but figures of 200 km. in 200 years were commonly given. The rainfall gradient from south to north in West Africa is remarkably regular and mean values diminish northwards by about 100 mm. per 100 km. in the Sahelian zone, so that the kinds of changes in the precipitation that are likely to have taken place cannot alone explain suc h a shift. All the writers pointed to the depredations of nomads, firing of forest lands and so on. Similar alarm bells were rung in East and South Africa and in all these areas government commissions were appointed to investigate. They confirmed that rainfall was not progressively decreasing, but agreed that the vegetation cover was deteriorating and in some areas water-tables were falling and rivers drying up. There is an interesting exception to the usual story of Hearing of the vegetation  being followed by a fall in the water-table. It was found in northern Nigeria in the 1950s that in spite of the spread of cultivation and the destruction of woodland in western Bornu, in the preceding 25 years the water-table had risen phenomenally, levels rising in some wells by more than 100 feet and perennial springs breaking out to feed small lakes.84 It was postulated that the destruction of woodland, by reducing the loss by transpiration of water brought up from depth by the tree roots, had increased the volume left to percolate deeply into the pervious sedimentary rocks. Similar reports come from West Australia and East Africa, and it seems that we may not be able to use the height of the water table by itself as a sound indicator of desertification. On the whole we are concerned with the vegetation cover, its completeness or  otherwise, its composition and its productivity. In assessing the rate of change in any or all of these we are faced with the difficulties of very great variability over short distances according to soil, slope, availability of water and, above all, intensity and manner of land use. Quantitative assessments of the plant cover at a particular place and at a particular time can now be made by using suitable sampling and statistical procedures, and extrapolating from the sample areas by using aerial photographs and other methods of remote sensing. It may be possible to monitor changes in the situation from season to season by satellite observations. Changes over a long period of time can now be assessed by comparing air photographs taken at intervals of 25 years in many of the  desert marginal areas. The Trimetrigon photography taken by the US Air Force of much of Africa during the Second World War could b e particularly useful in this respect (consisting of strips of vertical photos with obliques on either side). In some areas, such as Morocco and parts of southern Africa, photographic cover is available spanning an even longer interval of time. Opportunities for comparative studies of this kind do not seem to have been widely exploited and might be encouraged. One of the more interesting attempts to use air photographs to trace the shifting of the edge of the desert  is that of M. Clos-Arceduc who, from a study of the nature of the vegetation patterns in the Sahelian zone known as brousse tigree has come to the conclusion that they indicate a shift south of the vegetation zones through 150 km. in the Niamey region over 2 centuries or less. Combating Desert Encroachment Except for arid areas that yield oil, and the limited irrigated areas near the Nile, Niger, Senegal and Lake Chad, the lands at the margins of African deserts are poor and not likely to be highly productive. There is little to be said in favour of great schemes for climatic amelioration involving, for example, the diversion of great rivers such as the Zambesi and the creation (or reconstitution) of great lakes like those that existed in the humid periods of the Pleistocene. Such lakes would be extremely expensive to make, they would flood land which is now productive, and it is unlikely that they would lead to an increase of rainfall that would yield returns in any way commensurate with the costs involved. It is conceivable that the destruction of rain forest in the Congo basin, for  example, may have reduced the rainfall of areas further from the equator; by how much it is impossible to say. There is no question of afforestation in such a region on a scale sufficient to restore th e situation. In special circumstances cloud-seeding may be found to be rewarding, and it is possible that in the future ways will be found of modifying the general circulation advantageously. I would not regard any of these as being of much concern to us at present. At present, populations in the semi-arid lands of the continent are increasing at rates of about 3 per cent annually, as they are elsewhere in Africa. In the near future, however, it is possible that the rural population, especially the pastoral population, may decline. This has already happened in parts of the Sahara and Libya affected by oil production. There are three trends that are more generally effective. Firstly, young people going to school are becoming literate and have greater expectations than their parents had; secondly, people are consuming more and have the desire to consume more than they did; thirdly, people are congregating more near roads and in large towns. It is just as important to keep track of these changes in the human geography of the desert margins as it is to monitor changes in the vegetation cover and to calculate trends in precipitation. If effective measures are to be taken against desertification, the people involved must be persuaded of the advantages to themselves. Wherever possible measures should be of a positive rather than of a restrictive character. Thus, if it is inevitable that people are going to concentrate in large settlements in sensitive areas, then as well as attempting to regulate the felling of trees for fuel and timber, authorities may be able to cheapen alternative supplies of fuel and construction materials, provide young fruit trees at low cost, and so on. Perhaps the main problems are presented by pastoralists, whose traditional  systems do not fit neatly into the framework of a modern state. Nomadic flexibility is an advantage to people living in fluctuating, marginal environmental conditions, and nomadic mobility allows good use to be made of variable grazing. Settlement of pastoralists is expedient politically and has some economic advantages, but the greater rigidity seems to involve considerable risks of disaster when the drought years come again, as they will. In UNESCOs Use and Conservation of the Biosphere, it is noted that nomadism as a careful pastoral continuum is the least traumatic of human influences and as a form of husbandry utilizes areas which could not be utilized by man in any other way. I think we have yet to find a better alternative.