Is This Not a Bitch?

News of how trees have made a comeback against desertification in Niger in the Times: Basically, the long-term economics have finally kicked in and farmers have realized that they make more money planting trees than they do cutting them down for timber. Even better, Niger's farmers started taking care of their trees without buckets of cash incentives from government or international aid groups.

It's a broadsheet of optimism until the third-to-last-paragraph lays out the prognosis for the future:

Dr. Cook’s long-term projections, based on a variety of climate models, point to longer and more frequent dry periods in the Sahel, caused by rising temperatures in the Gulf of Guinea.

And that's coming now no matter how many trees get planted. Sigh.

Update: Head Heeb, who remains the gold standard in foreign policy blogging, talks about how Niger is in danger of falling victim to "desertification-driven ethnic conflicts." Double sigh.