Regardless of whether you believe in global warming or not, you should still be afraid of desertification. Whole civilisations and societies have collapsed due to desertification - it's tough and expensive to survive in an area where you cannot grow food and the heat becomes oppressive.
The Gilgamesh talks of a massive Cedar forest in Lebanon and Syria, but it's been gone for 2500 years and the land has turned to desert, because they were chopping it all for export down faster than new trees could grow. Easter Island is another society that destroyed itself by cutting down all it's trees.
In the modern world, China is most at risk. They've a similar population to India, but despite a greater land mass, they are no longer self-sufficient in food production, unlike India. And that's primarily because the deserts are spreading in China, but not in India. And what is not desert is polluted with industrial waste and lost to food production.
It's going to have repercussions. They are intending to lease a lot of land in Ukraine to grow food. I expect they are eyeing the fertile lower Siberian steppes greedily and much of their aggression in the East China sea is about seeking land that is not trashed in the way China is.
So desertification matters.
