(Reuters) - The world is losing almost 1 million square kilometres (386,000 square miles) of productive land a year to sand and dust storms made worse by human activities, the United Nations body in charge of fighting desertification warned on Wednesday.

 

The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) said an estimated two billion tons of sand and dust enters the atmosphere every year, wreaking havoc across large parts of Asia and Africa and causing significant economic damage throughout the world.