The reason why Gobi and other deserts are expanding is partly due to changing climate cycles affecting the rainfall, but human-driven global warming is also fueling this process. Some 3000 kilometers from the Gobi, in the deserts of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, the Aral Sea is drying up, mainly because of industrial farming. This, but also extreme droughts, deforestation and overgrazing have severely degraded once-fertile soils. This man-made destruction is called desertification. And it's happening on a global scale. By the middle of the century, 25% of the world's soils will be affected. "If we don't have a solid base upon which people's livelihoods can depend on, everything else becomes precarious." This is Dr. Barron Joseph Orr, Lead Scientist for the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification. His job is to find solutions to help the half a billion people whose livelihoods are already hard hit by desertification - and the other half a billion who are at risk. Most live in South East Asia, the Middle East, the Sahara region and North Africa. The good news, the situation is not hopeless.