Damage to land feeds migration, conflict

environment:By Laurie Goering

LONDON — Vast swathes of land, from Africa to the Middle East, are being left useless by climate shifts and human pressures such as deforestation, mining and farming, threatening to hike migration and conflict, a senior United Nations environmental official warned.

The accelerating damage could cost the global economy a staggering $23 trillion by 2050 — and rich countries as well as poor will pay the price, said Ibrahim Thiaw, executive secretary of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification.

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