Gansu Province includes part of Gobi Desert. Desertification ij that area and Inner Mongolia is exacerbated by past government resettlement policies. Much of the land was inhabited by nomads with grazing animals. But new settlers were encourage to break the sparse vegetation cover and plant crops. There are very strong winds that then blew the soil away. And now that the vegetation cover has been opened the winds worry open areas and expand them. Hence the expanding deserts and dust clouds as far east to Beijing and the ocean. Now very expensive anti-desertification projects to combat this effect. Not much to do with climate change but more to do with human impact of unsuitable agricultural practice - attempting to turn sparse grazing land into cropping lands. Its an effect well see more of as up above in Mongolia the government is trying to get nomadic herders to settle and raise crops. The age old ways are tried and true but Westernized thinking attempts to place projects upon developing countries with unintended consequences. Visited farm projects in Mongolia in 2005 and the ignorance expressed by some of the farmers on our tour was amazing.
Posted on: Sat, 23 Nov 2013 21:10:12 +0000
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