Picture of the Day: Green versus Desert
[i-Forest belt in China trying to stop desertification]
China is creating a 4,500 km (2,800 mi) long forest belt to control sandstorms pushing forward the sands of the Gobi desert. (More)
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Picture courtesy Biopact
Climate change: 20% of China is now desert.
Sean Gallagher is a photojournalist living in China. With the support of Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting to highlight the impact of desertification in China.
Almost 20% of China's land is now desert, affecting 400 million people. In Western China over one million acres of fertile land turn into desert. Per year. Last year they suffered a peak drought.
Climate change, wind and water erosion, industrialization, agriculture, untimely policy changes, you name it.
[Loband: Object Removed -]
China's desertification is not only a problem for the Chinese. It impacts the world as a whole. I am not talking about what 1,000,000 acres of desert mean to the world's climate, alone: the more fertile land turns into sand, the more China is looking for agriculture land abroad, competing with European biofuel companies and Arab countries trying to secure their food production too. And money buys land in Africa. Easily. Even if this means they need to reduce their own food production.
Video courtesy Sean Gallagher. Discovered via Resolve and Duckrabbit
Picture of the day: Desertification
Desert[i-Desert]
Desertification is the degradation of land into arid (desert) areas. Caused primarily by human activities and climatic variations, desertification is on the move. We loose fertile land and nature's biodiversity at an alarming rate.
The Sahara is expanding south at an average rate of 30 miles per year. In Nigeria desertification overtakes about 1,355 square miles (3,510 km²) of land per year. More than 80% of Afghanistan's land is subject to soil erosion and desertification. In Kazakhstan, nearly half of the cropland turned intow wasteland since 1980. (Source)
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Picture courtesy Reuters (Der Spiegel)