That cold current is the reason why Peru's coastal plain is a desert (whose soil can be made fertile when irrigated by the waters of rivers rushing down from the Andes).

ECONOMIST: The unkind child

In fact, what the deployment of U.S. troops on Saudi soil in Operation Desert Shield amounted to was allowing us to defend them.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: Saudi double games

C. and A.D. 500 by brushing away the dark top layer of barren desert to reveal the light, sandy soil underneath, wrote Clive Ruggles, an archaeologist from the University of Leicester in the United Kingdom, in an email.

MSN: Peru's mysterious Nazca Lines form a labyrinth, says study

The soil in this part of the Kuwaiti desert was as soft as a New York sidewalk.

CNN: Digging in with the Marines

They look at a forest or a desert and they track rainfall patterns, or air and soil temperatures, what plants grow there and who eats what.

NPR: Warming Will Create Micro-Climates, Scientists Say

Soil degradation could be worsened by increased erosion caused by higher rainfall, while elsewhere more land could become desert.

BBC: Climate change warning