Sudbury Star: The federal government recently pulled out of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification. It's aimed at fighting drought, a problem that affects almost 30% of Earth's land surface and threatens the well-being of more than a billion people worldwide, including in our Prairie provinces. Every year, the cumulative effects of overgrazing, over-cultivation, deforestation, poor irrigation and increasing extreme weather events --including those that cause drought -- permanently degrade close to 10 million...