The designers tool for selecting species for function, climate and local conditions. This book is really about conservation - conservation of soil; fossil fuel; human energy; species; and genotypes of species. Ultimately it is about conservation of the human species, which is obviously doomed unless we change our priorities away from a consumerist society and shift our direction towards well-designed sustainable systems. The plants listed in this book have great potential to turn the problems of desertification into solutions enabling food security and abundance. Simultaneously massive pressure can be taken off of species at risk.