The planet only has so much land mass, and productive land – that which has the soil and climate suitable for growing things – is in even shorter supply. Yet much like the world’s forests, we’re quickly losing much of our arable land through careless use and shortsighted actions.

It’s estimated that a quarter of the world’s arable farmland has already been depleted by over-farming or overgrazing. (Lewis, 2017) By the turn of the century, more than 250 million people around the world had already lost the ability to grow crops on their farms, and 1 billion more in 100+ countries are in danger of losing their ability to grow crops. (Godfrey, 2000)

A 2019 study by the United Nations found that 23% of farmland is already less productive because of soil degradation, and another $577 billion in crops could be lost each year if pollinators continue to die out. (Abbott, 5-7-2019)

Many experts have sounded the alarm that soil throughout Africa is being rapidly degraded. “The natural reservoirs of fertility – nutrients stored in the organic matter of decomposing roots and leaves from previous centuries – are shrinking as farming extracts more nitrogen, phosphorous, and potassium every year than it replaces,” writes Dan Charles. “This leaves the land progressively less able to feed the people who depend on it – ‘a scenario for disaster over the long run,’ according to the World Bank.” (Charles, 2013, p. Ill)

Since 1996, the desert in Mongolia has been expanding due to overgrazing. The amount of land severely impacted by desertification has more than tripled to around 100,000 square miles. Widespread habitat destruction has occurred during the same period, and hunting has wiped out 75-90% of various prey animals in the region. This means that in just a generation’s time, the region has been transformed into a barren wasteland that benefits no one.

Beach Erosion

Many of the world’s beaches are running out of sand, a problem created by overdevelopment of coastal areas that is blocking the processes that normally keep beaches sandy. Tourist areas are forced to spend hundreds of millions of dollars dredging up sand from the nearby ocean floor to re-sand beaches, a destructive process in itself since it can destroy reefs and other ocean ecosystems. “But by now, virtually all the accessible undersea sand has been used up,” writes Vince Beiser. “Having run out of offshore sand, many towns in Southern Florida are left with no choice but to dig their sand from inland quarries and haul it to the coast one roaring, diesel-spewing truck at a time.” (Beiser, 2018)

It can cost as much as $10 million per mile; so far, cities and towns in the U.S. have spent upwards of $9 billion to re-sand their beaches. It’s a lot like trying to fill a glass that happens to have a huge hole in the bottom. “Few replenished beaches last longer than five years or so before they have to be fattened up again,” says Beiser. The process can also destroy beach ecosystems, since dumping tons of imported sand on top of them kills many microorganisms.

“As sea-level rise rapidly accelerates, beach towns are increasingly desperate for fresh infusions of sand, which the corps must travel farther offshore to find,” writes Jen Schwartz. “Geologists warn that we are running out of usable sediment faster than the planet can replace it. Wealthy homeowners in Florida are now stealing sand from public beaches to fill in their private ones.” (Schwartz, 2018, p. 49)

The best way to protect beaches is to let them move. Protective seawalls only make things worse over time; erosion doesn’t destroy beaches, seawalls and roads do, by getting in the way of natural beach relocation. But of course, this would require rethinking our combative stance towards nature, and is something beachfront property owners would be up in arms about.