Desertification of China

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Enablers

• Deforestation
  • Brought on by desire for "chopsticks, toothpicks and Ping Pong paddles"
  • Firewood collection
• Increased water scarcity in China
• Wind storms
• Improper land use
  • Over-cultivation and overgrazing ("the tradegy of the common")
• Climate change
  • Increased temperatures, decreased rainfall
  • Fragmented government response

Inhibitors

• Improved agriculture
  • Problem fences to stop overgrazing
• Reforestation
  • The "Green Wall" of China
• Alternatives to wood as a source of fuel

Paradigms

• The world's largest economy will unlikely be able to feed itself as arable land is swallowed up by sand
• Increased sand disasters in Bejing
• Increased internal migration of rural Chinese
  • Increased number of migrant workers in eastern cities

Timing

4th century B.C.	first recorded mention of desertification in China
1950s	sandstorms in Beijing every 7 or 8 years
1970s	sandstorms in Beijing every 2 or 3 years
1990s	sandstorms in Beijing annually

Web Resources

1. Dictionary.com
2. "China Faces Challenge of Desertification", People's Daily
3. "Deforestation & Desertification - China"
4. "Beijing's Desert Storm", Ron Gluckman
5. "China's creeping sands" Slideshow, Sean Gallagher
6. "China News: Desertification", China Digital Times

Revision History

September

2009

Created by Gerrit Ledderhof