Deserts: Grains of Sands
A Place of Inner Quiet: The desert is a state of mind as much as a place. Prophets of old were drawn to its inner quiet; sages and poets still seek solitude in nature to cleanse the mind and the spirit. Harsh and remote deserts come in many guises: coastal as in the Namib of Namibia, cold like the Arctic and Antarctic, hot and dry as the Sahara, and semi-arid as exemplified by parts of Greenland. The Sahara, at 4,800 kilometres long and 1,800 kilometres wide, is one of the harshest environments on Earth, covering a third of the African continent.
Mineral Wealth
Though such austere and inaccessible regions may seem to have little value for humans, deserts are vitally important to the planetary ecosystem, and their dry conditions promote the formation and concentration of important minerals. Gypsum, borates, nitrates, potassium and other salts are all found in deserts, which also hold 75 per cent of the planet’s known oil reserves. Deserts cover approximately one third of the world’s dry land and are among the most fragile and endangered of its biomes.
The Namib
Among all the desert states, Namibia stands out. The name Namib comes from the Nama for ‘open space’ and at 55 million years old it is the world’s oldest desert, running the entire length of the country’s Atlantic coastline. It is home to less than 100 desert adapted lions and just 150 desert adapted elephants that wander vast distances to find sufficient food. This is a land like no other. A safari here is a spiritual experience, the chance to rediscover the joy of being alive, to absorb the wonder of nature.
Dr Flip Stander started Namibia’s Desert Lion Conservation Project in 1998. In conjunction with Dr Stander, Will and Liane Steenkamp spent 18 months filming their beautiful video Vanishing Kings: Desert Lions of the Namib
The Human Connection
Deserts have been a way of life for many different peoples able to find sufficient food to support hunter- gathering communities such as the Bushmen of the Kalahari and Australian aborigines. Others, such as the Bedouin of Oman, still roam the deep deserts of the planet with their dromedary camels, herding goats and sheep, although their lifestyle is more semi-nomadic and dependent on their knowledge of the location of water, using animal skins as tents for shelter, and relying on the milk, bones, and meat of their treasured animals for sustenance.
Endangered species: the Arabian Leopard
Angie and I visited Oman in 2007 to work with the Willis family on their film The Arabian Leopard of Oman about the critically endangered Arabian leopard (of which there are probably fewer than two hundred left in the wild). Camping out in the Jabal Samhan Mountains, one of the last refuges of this subspecies of leopard, is a never-to-be-forgotten experience. Somehow the leopards find enough to survive on, though the sparsity of large herbivores is reflected in the smaller size of these big cats, with males weighing around 30 kilograms and females 20 kilograms – half the size of their African counterparts shown in the photograph. To learn more, you can watch Pure Nature Specials Arabian Leopard Of Oman on youtube.
The wild cat organisation Panthera and The Royal Commission for AlUla (RCU) have entered into an historic partnership to recover the critically endangered Arabian leopard and leopard populations around the globe:
Sossusvlei
At the Namib’s southern reaches is a place called Sossusvlei, which boasts the highest dunes in the world. Knife-edged mountains of red sand soar 300 metres into the bluest skies on Earth. Each morning clouds of mists roll in from the ocean, replenishing the moisture in these thirsty lands. Nature’s creativity never ceases to amaze: there are tenebroid beetles that perform handstands among the dunes to capture the droplets of water, allowing it to run down into their mouths. Side-winding adders bury themselves up to their watchful reptilian eyeballs as they wait for prey to pass close enough for a lightning strike. Shovel-snouted lizards barely touch the red-hot sand as they skim over it at more than 90 centimetres per second; when resting they carefully lift their feet away from the 70° Celsius surface to keep from overheating.
Conserving our Deserts
In such a sparsely populated land as Namibia (fewer than two million inhabitants in an area appreciably larger than France or Texas), there is a greater sense of connection to Mother Earth. It is the first country in the world to enshrine the protection of its environment within its constitution. Here you can still feel the visceral bond between humans and Earth, a place to remember that art, whether painted, sculpted or photographed, has its genesis in nature. Let it be the source of your inspiration.
How you can help
People often ask us “how can we help?” It is easy to believe that as individuals our voices will never be heard; that we are powerless to make a difference, that we must wait for someone else to make the changes we believe are needed, that the government can and will fix it. But reconnecting people to nature and protecting our natural environment is an urgent mission of global proportions that needs a global response. That is why we created the SNI, to amplify our message of “inspire and educate if we are to conserve.” And it starts with you. Each of us must choose to be better informed about the environment. Knowledge gives us power. Only by knowing and understanding the issues and challenges we now face can we hope to conserve the things that are important. And what could be more important than a healthy natural environment for all? It starts at home by changing our way of doing things, Step by Step the Sacred Nature Way.
Donations
Many people tell us they would like to donate to an organisation that reflects their interests and has the ability to effect change. One of the key functions of the SNI is to inform you about what we believe is working in the field of conservation and what isn’t. It might be a particular species that interests you - lions, elephants, tiger, gorillas, pangolins or penguins. Or you may want to support an organisation that focuses on a particular ecosystem that you have visited such as the Mara-Serengeti or one that you feel mirrors your concerns. For each ecosystem highlighted in our Sacred Nature books and on the SNI Website we have identified organisations that we believe are making a difference and reflect the SNI ethos of Inspire-Educate-Conserve. And of course the SNI cannot fulfil its mission without both the emotional and financial support of sponsors and donors. If you would like to support our work please reach out to us at:
hello@sacrednatureinitiative.com
Additional resources: Deserts
We have included here additional resources such as books, articles, videos, podcasts and websites of organisations making a significant contribution to Reconnecting People to Our Planet and pioneering change.
Natural history and evolution of the world's deserts: In: Ezcurra, E. (editor). Global Deserts Outlook, 2016. United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP): Ezcurra, E. (lead author); E. Mellink, E. Wehncke, C. González, S. Morrison, A. Warren, D. Dent, and P. Driessen (contributing authors).
Arabian Sands: Wilfred Thesiger: Penguin Books, 1959.
A book by explorer and travel writer Wilfred Thesiger focusing on the author's travels across the Empty Quarter of the Arabian Peninsula between 1945 and 1950. It attempted to capture the lives of the Bedu people and other inhabitants of the Arabian peninsula.
Ecosystems
SavannasEcosystem
Forests and PlantsEcosystem
WaterEcosystem
DesertsEcosystem
MountainsEcosystem
Polar RegionsEcosystem
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