Climate change, humans, and Earth’s orbital shift have greatly affected the Sahara desert, and it has changed the landscape from a lush green savanna to a barren desert.
The changes throughout the history of the Saharan desert can be linked to Earth’s orbital shift and the effects of humans. The Earth’s orbital shift occurred around eight thousand years ago, and it changed .6 degrees. This shift caused the Southern hemisphere to receive more sunlight which changed the weather that the Sahara would receive. “The monsoons decreased and the vegetation began to disappear” (Herath). There are two kinds of monsoons. A wet monsoon occurs between May and September. Wind from the southeast brings rain with it creating a wet monsoon. The other kind of monsoon is a dry monsoon. This occurs during October and April. The wind blows in from the northeast (“What Exactly”). When the
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This caused a cycle of decreased rainfall and less plant life, and that would repeat until the Sahara turned into what it is today. This change to the landscape happened slowly but continuously since six thousand years ago. With the decreased amount of the vegetation, the landscape went from a lush green to a barren desert. The sunlight is better reflected by a light surface. When the vegetation decreased, the color turned into light brown. This reflected the sunlight back into atmosphere which warmed the air. The other cause of the Sahara is the migration of humans to the land. These humans brought in domesticated animals that would end up overgrazing the land. Overgrazing caused there to be even less vegetation than there was before. The domesticated animals would clear full fields of plants and move on to the next one. Wild animals would not clear fields because they knew they would be