NYTimes.com no longer supports Internet Explorer 9 or earlier. “The soil is not as soft or good as it was before,” she said. That is why we have decided to join in this titanic battle.” There are now dunes forming just 44 miles from Beijing, and some estimates put the Gobi’s crawl south toward the capital at a … China's Environmental Protection Agency reports that the Gobi Desert expanded by 52,400 square kilometers (20,240 square miles) from 1994 to 1999, an area half the size of Pennsylvania. But gradually, everyone left. Last year, the company that operates the park paid students to build seven giant sand sculptures as its centerpiece. I had no idea that there was even a desert expansion issue occurring in China until i found this article. China now has the second largest desert in the world – the Taklimakan desert. This presents a political risk for the future as China is squeezed by the expanding desert. Visitors also rent camels and dune buggies, and can pay to eat in the round Mongolian tents, called gers. Across northern China, generations of families have made a living herding animals on the edge of the desert. By JOSH HANER, EDWARD WONG, DEREK WATKINS and JEREMY WHITE. Huang Chunmei, who grew up in the town of Tonggunao’er and now farms there, said the water table was two meters, or about six feet, below ground during her childhood, and “now, you have to dig four or five meters.”. Ms. Huang, 38, grows corn and tomatoes, some in greenhouse structures. Edited by Hannah Fairfield and Jodi Rudoren. Photographs and drone videos by Josh Haner. Kiki Zhao and Sarah Li contributed research. Jiali lives in an area called Alxa League, where the government has relocated about 30,000 people, who are called “ecological migrants,” because of desertification. China’s forests were cut down and used for fuel, lumber, and paper production for the billions of little red books that became rather notorious. « Germany on the Threshold of an Unprecedented Radicalization, Lagarde – Wants to Raise Retirement Age & Taxes ». An afforestation project to prevent the desert from expanding and to reduce the impacts of sand and dust storms on nearby residents was launched in Kekeya in 1986 and completed in 2015. Officials have given Jiali and her family a home in a village about six miles from Swan Lake, the oasis where they run a tourist park. For years, China’s deserts spread at an annual rate of more than 1,300 square miles. Storms of wind-driven sand have become increasingly frequent and intense, reaching Beijing and other large cities. At the end of the 20th Century, China's deserts were expanding at a pace - 10,000-sq./km. Satellite imagery from DigitalGlobe via Google. In the five years to 2010, the authors estimated the area of desert had shrunk by an annual average of 1,717 square kilometres. That is a huge topic no doubt, but i feel as if the media has neglected many other occurrences of … The Tengger is growing. People on the edges of the country’s vast seas of sand are being displaced by climate change. The family charges each tourist $4.50 to visit Swan Lake. Authorities worry that expanding deserts could put crops and water supplies in the world's second largest economy at risk. As the Tengger expands, it is merging with two other deserts to form a vast sea of sand that could become uninhabitable. China’s Gobi Desert. Local governments in desert regions began relocating people away from the encroaching sands decades ago. Mr. Guo took saplings that the government had left behind after it completed a tree planting operation. Realizing its mistake, the government saw the desert areas expanding and embarked on an effort to reverse the damage by trying to the create a reforestation effort in 1978. The New York Times.-deserts.html The Tengger Desert lies on the southern edge of the massive Gobi Desert, not far from major cities like Beijing. The Tengger is growing. In the 1990s China’s deserts were expanding by 3,500 square kilometers every year, according to Luo Bin, deputy director of the National Bureau to Combat Desertification. The second is on the world’s … Many villages have been lost. Nearly 27% of China’s land area is comprised of deserts. Semi-arid land in China has expanded in recent decades and will probably continue to expand, with implications for food and water security. But the oasis, which is the main attraction, is shrinking. Many of the oases in the Tengger are drying up. Population data from WorldPop. Around 200 lakes dried up in about 20 years.Then in 2010, the staff of the Tibetan Sustainable Environmental Resources for Increased Economic Growth (TSERING) program taught villagers how … Along with local governments, they plant trees in an effort to block the wind and stabilize the soil. Notes and sources: Arid regions saw less than 250 millimeters of average annual precipitation from 1981 to 2013. Only about 15% of the trees planted since 1949 have survived. “They are all a mess now,” Mr. Guo said. “The sand and wind make life tough here. Like Jiali’s family, many people herd animals and run small tourist parks on the edge of the Tengger Desert. Only about 15% of the trees planted since 1949 have survived. Nearly 20 percent of China is desert, and drought across the northern region is getting worse. The Gobi Desert is expanding at an alarming rate through desertification, most rapidly on the southern edge into China, which is seeing 3,600 km 2 (1,390 sq mi) of grassland overtaken every year. For years, China’s deserts spread at an annual rate of more than 1,350 square miles. The government introduced fast-growing pine and poplar trees that were not native to the region. Climate change and human activities have accelerated desertification. Visitors also rent camels and dune buggies. per year, but in recent years, deserts are shrinking about 2,400-sq./km. It is also the world's second-largest shifting sand desert. About 17 percent of the population in Alxa League are ethnic Mongolians, whose lives and livelihoods have long been tied to the herding the government is trying to halt. One recent estimate said China had 21,000 square miles more desert than what existed in 1975 — about the size of Croatia. This process increased during the 1960s and had the tendency to eliminate both forests and grasslands. annually. With the advancing Gobi now within 150 miles of Beijing, China's leaders are beginning to … Four generations of Mengkebuyin’s family lived by the lake in a thriving community. Sign up to receive our in-depth journalism about climate change around the world. Around 27% of China is covered in desert. Desertification is the gradual transformation of arable and habitable land into desert, usually caused by climate change and/or the improper use of land. “They are all a mess now,” Mr. Guo said. He herds the sheep toward the old family home, where he can give the animals water. They will need new technology to grow food as we pointed out. Ma noted China is the first country to make sizable reductions of its desert territory. Their research shows that deserts expanded in China from 1994 to 1999… Guo Kaiming, 40, a farmer who also manages a tourist park at the edge of the Tengger Desert, planted rows of trees by a new cross-desert highway in June. Residents who live on the edge of the deserts try to limit the steady march of the sand. In 1994, China’s forestry administration started monitoring the status of desertification nationally. “The wind is fierce. According to statistics released by the State Forestry Administration, China has 2.6 million square km of desert that accounts for 27 percent of the country’s total land area. Additional video editing by Taige Jensen. However, while the intentions were good, the bottom-line result has been devastating. This led to a sharp rise in the rate of desertification. Oct. 24, 2016. Nearly 20 percent of China is desert, and drought across northern China is getting worse. China has intensified its efforts to halt the expansion of deserts with further huge investment and greenbelt projects. But the usefulness of those policies is debated by scientists, and deserts are expanding in critical regions. And they can pay to eat in the round Mongolian tents, called gers. For years, China’s deserts spread at an annual rate of more than 1,300 square miles. China this week revealed plans to drastically expand an experimental weather modification program to cover an area of over 5.5 million square kilometers (2.1 million square miles) — … Desertification is a type of land degradation in drylands in which biological productivity is lost due to natural processes or induced by human activities whereby fertile areas become increasingly arid. China has spent decades curbing desertification through greening. He would like to move to better pasture, but the government will not allow it. Their attempt to reverse the trend had the exact opposite impact. But the oasis, which is the main attraction, is shrinking. Sandstorm severity calculated as winter storm hours over frequency. The desert areas are scattered among 12 provincial-level regions in north China. Beijing Shanghai Gobi Desert China Map Dalian Chengdu Ancient China Interesting History We The People “We use more fertilizer now.”, Ms. Huang and her husband have sent their 14-year-old daughter to a boarding school in a nearby city. They have moved to a village five miles away. Jiali’s mother, Du Jinping, 45, said the family would live in the new village in the winter, but return to Swan Lake in the summer. As the Tengger expands, it is merging with two other deserts to form a vast sea of sand that could become uninhabitable. Instead of creating a forest, it expanded the desert. Kiki Zhao and Sarah Li contributed research. To get them to move and sell off their herd of more than 70 sheep, 30 cows and eight camels, the officials have offered an annual subsidy equivalent to $1,500 for each of her parents and $1,200 for a grandmother who lives with them. Precipitation data from Climate Hazards Group, University of California, Santa Barbara, via the International Research Institute for Climate and Society, Columbia University. Mengkebuyin, 42, and his wife, Mandula, 41, grow corn and sunflowers, but their 200 sheep provide most of their income: They sell the meat to a hotel restaurant in a nearby city. Dust storms have increased in frequency in the past 20 years, causing further damage to China's agriculture economy. It’s not only a … Many of the oases in the Tengger are drying up. China's Gobi Desert. He has his corn and wheat fields, plus income from running the tourist park. They roam by his old family home, near the shores of a lake that dried up years ago. It is designed to halt the expansion of the Gobi Desert. By planting certain pine trees and covering areas with a single species of tree, the government allowed China’s peripheral deserts to expand. Expanding deserts are a global problem. But China’s densely populated areas are pushing toward the deserts, as the deserts grow toward the cities. Each year, desertification and drought account for US$42 billion loss in food productivity worldwide. Thanks to a combination of exploitive agricultural practices, political mishaps, and changing patterns of migration, these deserts are expanding by nearly 10,000 km 2 a year. Young trees planted to hinder sandstorms and reverse desertification in the Xihu preservation area of the Gobi Desert, near Dunhuang, China. He said he was not ready to join the climate refugees. The sheep graze in the desert, where grass is growing scarce. Ms. Huang and her husband have sent their 14-year-old daughter to a boarding school in a nearby city.
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