The Costs of China’s Desertification
A recent article at the People’s Daily reports that desertification causes yearly loss of 54 billion yuan in China.
Realistically, given the various unmeasurable costs this number is vastly under reported, and where I would like to direct your attention is to the passage:
China’s desertified land accounts for 18.1% of the country’s total land area.
The nationwide area of water and soil erosion covers 3.56 million square kilometers, while desertified land amounts to 1.74 million square kilometers.
Over 90% of natural grassland has been degraded. Meanwhile, dried-up lakes, an increasing amount of airborne dust and frequent sandstorms caused by desertification have severely affected the health and quality of life of people in northern regions such as Beijing and Tianjin.
For anyone who follows climate change, and the impact of human beings, it does not require a lot more information to understand the size of the problem that is being faced in China’s Northern territory.
With tipping point perhaps being passed for some areas, what is scary is that the Gobi is only a few hundred km from the capital city, and that while replanting efforts are underway, there are a lot of experts who question whether or not the effort may be too late already.
going forward, many who look to understand the issues of sustinability, are going to quickly nee dto get past clean energy and clean cars and quickly focus on land, water, and people management.
These are the issues that China will face going forward, and without strategies that will effectively manage these three resources, water and food contaminations/ scarcities will prove to be a game changing challenge.
Scary stats and analysis aside, there are successful models in China and in other areas of the world that suggest things can be turned around, and I for one hope that the lessons of the World Bank Loess Plateau project can be scaled out.
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