Reliving the tsunami, deserts could feed the world...
Is it OK to dramatise other people's misery? The BBC is shooting a mini-series about the Indian Ocean tsunami on the Thai coast, but locals accuse the film-makers of exacerbating their trauma.
There's also outrage at the decision to hire Thais to play corpses for just 400 baht ($11) a day, according to a report in Britain's Independent newspaper. It says Western extras are normally paid 20 pounds ($38) a day.
"Why are they doing this? It's too early," tour guide Sawitree Kulmat is quoted as saying. "Nobody wants this. Everyone is trying to forget... What about people who lost their families?"
The Dec. 26, 2004 tsunami killed at least 5,395 people in Thailand. Another 2,817 are missing presumed dead.
Recreations of the disaster on the Andaman coast are too real for comfort. Locals have been upset by film sets showing wrecked cars and boats.
"It's disgusting. I almost had a heart attack when I saw a bunch of wrecked cars and a longtail boat up by the bridge... (It was) real deja vu. I thought maybe it was a flash flood," said Bodhi Garrett, the director of North Andaman Tsunami Relief. "If there had been a simple warning sign that this was staged for the cameras there would have been a lot less offence caused."
The BBC says the drama, a joint project with U.S. network HBO, will explore how governments, the media and aid agencies respond when tested by a massive natural disaster. Big name actors include Britain's Tim Roth and Australian actress Toni Collette. (We suspect they're getting a tad more than $11 a day.)
This is not the first time the BBC has been accused of insensitivity in dramatising a crisis. Shooting Dogs, a film about the Rwandan genocide released this year, was shot at the site of a massacre using genocide survivors as extras. Aid workers said locals were traumatised by witnessing the reconstruction.
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Deserts are going to be the site of dramatic change in the near future and the world's fresh water supplies are at risk, but there's also potential for harnessing these amazing dry lands, which cover almost one quarter of the earth's surface and are home to over 500 million people. That's according to a report by the U.N. Environment Programme (UNEP) to coincide with World Environment Day - June 5, in case you were wondering.
Some countries with deserts - Chad, Iraq, Niger and Syria - could find that population growth and inefficient water use push them into crisis by 2050, the report says, and main rivers feeding deserts are likely to be at risk even sooner, by 2025.
Scientists predict that by the end of the century most of the earth's 12 desert regions will have at least 5 to 10 percent less rainfall. Climate change is already affecting deserts, and in some cases the forecast is even worse, with predictions of 10 to 20 percent.
Only the Gobi desert in China is predicted to have rainfall increases of between 10 and 15 percent.
The world's supply of drinking water is also shrinking from salination and pesticide pollution. Water tables beneath some irrigated lands are rising and becoming more salinated, in China for example. And seawater is starting to pollute coastal supplies in places where they've been over-exploited. Seawater has penetrated 20 km (12 miles) inland in parts of Libya.
You can put water through desalination plants - Saudi Arabia does - but it's an expensive process, and uses up precious energy at a time when fuel prices are rising.
This means that land turning to desert is a growing obstacle to ending poverty and a threat to peace.
Meanwhile, islands of woodland which were left behind when deserts formed 20,000 years ago could be lost in less than 50 years, UNEP's report says. These precious little areas were vital points on historic trade routes - like the Silk Road and cross-Sahara trade paths - as well as habitat for isolated animals who are now on the brink of extinction. Species of gazelle, oryx, addax, Arabian tahr and Barbary sheep are under threat.
It's not all bad news, luckily. Scientists have a few ideas how humans could put deserts to use, and maybe even feed the world.
They say shrimp farming in deserts could take the pressure off mangroves, which are often cleared for shrimp farming.
Large bare areas are an obvious candidate for solar power, and there are plants native to deserts which could be put to medicinal use against cancer, malaria and other illnesses.
Nipa, a salt grass harvested in the Sonoran desert of northwestern Mexico by the Cocopahs people, thrives on saltwater and produces large grain yields the size of wheat. "It is a strong candidate for a major global food crop and could become this desert's greatest gift to the world," the report says.
The Science and Development Network has just published an online dossier of desert resources too.
