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The situation in Darfur is caused by increasing deserts. Nomadic desert tribes are being forced to encroach on other peoples land as their watering holes dry up. Desertification can cause wars. Desertification increases global warming.
When I went to school the solution was reforestation and hydrology studies on a global scale that would recommend solutions to the problem. Why wasn’t this done more vigorously? Part of the reason is that people will have to be moved. More than likely people would be asked to move to let forests grow and for dams to be built to better manage water resources. This does not sit well with capitalist and liberal ideologues as they don’t believe that people should be forced to do anything for the greater good. In fact they claim there is no such a thing as the greater good and the left and right agree that the nation state is sacrosanct and global solutions (the only thing that will work as this is one planet) are a bad idea as they interfere with national sovereignty.
Anyhow the deserts will grow and we will wonder why and sit on our hands.
,,
Posted by Spinoza750 on Oct 14, 2006 at 9:42 AM
You can tell China is getting a bit desperate about this if they are having all those farmers shooting shells into the clouds to seed them for rain. And this practice affects natural rain patterns, so where the clouds have more likely released rain in the past, seeding will essentially steal the rain from those areas which over time probably will make those areas drought-prone as well.
A good book about the world’s water problems is “When the Rivers Run Dry” by Fred Pearce that brings in some of China’s problems. The book jumps to places all over the world where humans have caused the water shortages and literally changed the earth for the worse. There are problems here in the US as well. The Midwest for example is rapidly draining its watertable through corporate farming practices and most people are aware of the overtaxing of water resources in the American Southwest.
Posted by Jon B on Oct 15, 2006 at 2:54 PM
The current desertification of China’s valuable agricultural land is one of the many negative impacts of the global economy. Rising grain prices due to massively increased grain imports could benefit US farmers and, of course, big Agribusiness firms like Cargill and ADM who receive most of the subsidies and control most of the US grain exports. This goes along with the way in which China’s export boom benefits US transnational corporations more than the Chinese workers or their communities. China’s industrial revolution is the most foreign dependant of all four historic industrial revolutions (UK, US, Japan, China) and the most reliant on foreign capital and markets. Though the internal market for increasing quantities of red meat is deemed responsible for the overgrazing of livestock and the desertification it causes, the rising incomes upon which this is based is rooted in China’s foreign spurred industrial revolution and the foreign markets it serves. It is time to bring this process under greater control. China has far greater independance and political ability to cope than other third world countries whose external economic dependancy is causing the same types of ecological problems.
Posted by cabdriverinchicago on Oct 15, 2006 at 10:15 PM
I wish we had some sort of agitation to stop the growing deserts which is a world wide phenomena and problem. There is a potential that the growing deserts and melting glaciers are going to increase water shortages. From what I know of the Three Gorges Dam project it should control water usage to a high degree and the lakes formed should be a good source of evaporate water but ideally heavy forest should be planted around the lake to moderate evaporation. Generally forestation is the best way to increase water supplies. I have heard arguments that one way to increase the value of land and increase water levels in the Tigris Euphrates water region is to greatly increase forests. This will also have the effect of reducing sand storms. It is argued that Israels reforestation projects have increased rainfall.
Posted by Spinoza750 on Oct 16, 2006 at 12:35 AM
> “Every year there are sandstorms, and every time there is a sandstorm our cotton is destroyed and we have to replant it, which costs a lot
This is another problem, plowing land loosens the soil and increases evaporation increasing drying conditions. That was how the dust bowl of the 1920-30’s was made.
What is needed is to analyze trends 50 years out and institute preventative practices.
Posted by Spinoza750 on Oct 16, 2006 at 12:42 AM
Its amazingly hard to get consistent statistics on this. The desert appears to be between 75-100 km/miles from Beijing (I’ve seen some articles that clearly quoted others but switched from km/miles by mistake!) but I can’t find a believeable/official source. Also, alot of articles have quoted the outdated stat of the desert growing 2460 sq km a year, but tonight I recently found this
http://english.gov.cn/2006-05/30/content_295059.htm:
‘China’s deserts are shrinking by 7,585 sq km annually, compared with an annual expansion of 10,400 sq km at the end of last century, a senior forestry official said in Beijing on Monday.
The decrease showed the desertification that started in China in the late 1990s had been “primarily brought under control,” said Zhu Lieke, deputy director of the State Forestry Administration.
However, “the work in this regard remains tough,” Zhu told the Beijing International Conference on Women and Desertification held in the Chinese capital.’
(“International Conference on Women and Desertification” thats pretty specific..)
Does anybody have an offical source on the distance of the desert from Beijing? (maybe not gov.cn…)
Posted by babelian on Oct 16, 2006 at 8:04 PM
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Reader Comments
The situation in Darfur is caused by increasing deserts. Nomadic desert tribes are being forced to encroach on other peoples land as their watering holes dry up. Desertification can cause wars. Desertification increases global warming.
When I went to school the solution was reforestation and hydrology studies on a global scale that would recommend solutions to the problem. Why wasn’t this done more vigorously? Part of the reason is that people will have to be moved. More than likely people would be asked to move to let forests grow and for dams to be built to better manage water resources. This does not sit well with capitalist and liberal ideologues as they don’t believe that people should be forced to do anything for the greater good. In fact they claim there is no such a thing as the greater good and the left and right agree that the nation state is sacrosanct and global solutions (the only thing that will work as this is one planet) are a bad idea as they interfere with national sovereignty.
Anyhow the deserts will grow and we will wonder why and sit on our hands.
,,
You can tell China is getting a bit desperate about this if they are having all those farmers shooting shells into the clouds to seed them for rain. And this practice affects natural rain patterns, so where the clouds have more likely released rain in the past, seeding will essentially steal the rain from those areas which over time probably will make those areas drought-prone as well.
A good book about the world’s water problems is “When the Rivers Run Dry” by Fred Pearce that brings in some of China’s problems. The book jumps to places all over the world where humans have caused the water shortages and literally changed the earth for the worse. There are problems here in the US as well. The Midwest for example is rapidly draining its watertable through corporate farming practices and most people are aware of the overtaxing of water resources in the American Southwest.
The current desertification of China’s valuable agricultural land is one of the many negative impacts of the global economy. Rising grain prices due to massively increased grain imports could benefit US farmers and, of course, big Agribusiness firms like Cargill and ADM who receive most of the subsidies and control most of the US grain exports. This goes along with the way in which China’s export boom benefits US transnational corporations more than the Chinese workers or their communities. China’s industrial revolution is the most foreign dependant of all four historic industrial revolutions (UK, US, Japan, China) and the most reliant on foreign capital and markets. Though the internal market for increasing quantities of red meat is deemed responsible for the overgrazing of livestock and the desertification it causes, the rising incomes upon which this is based is rooted in China’s foreign spurred industrial revolution and the foreign markets it serves. It is time to bring this process under greater control. China has far greater independance and political ability to cope than other third world countries whose external economic dependancy is causing the same types of ecological problems.
I wish we had some sort of agitation to stop the growing deserts which is a world wide phenomena and problem. There is a potential that the growing deserts and melting glaciers are going to increase water shortages. From what I know of the Three Gorges Dam project it should control water usage to a high degree and the lakes formed should be a good source of evaporate water but ideally heavy forest should be planted around the lake to moderate evaporation. Generally forestation is the best way to increase water supplies. I have heard arguments that one way to increase the value of land and increase water levels in the Tigris Euphrates water region is to greatly increase forests. This will also have the effect of reducing sand storms. It is argued that Israels reforestation projects have increased rainfall.
> “Every year there are sandstorms, and every time there is a sandstorm our cotton is destroyed and we have to replant it, which costs a lot
This is another problem, plowing land loosens the soil and increases evaporation increasing drying conditions. That was how the dust bowl of the 1920-30’s was made.
What is needed is to analyze trends 50 years out and institute preventative practices.
Its amazingly hard to get consistent statistics on this. The desert appears to be between 75-100 km/miles from Beijing (I’ve seen some articles that clearly quoted others but switched from km/miles by mistake!) but I can’t find a believeable/official source. Also, alot of articles have quoted the outdated stat of the desert growing 2460 sq km a year, but tonight I recently found this
http://english.gov.cn/2006-05/30/content_295059.htm:
‘China’s deserts are shrinking by 7,585 sq km annually, compared with an annual expansion of 10,400 sq km at the end of last century, a senior forestry official said in Beijing on Monday.
The decrease showed the desertification that started in China in the late 1990s had been “primarily brought under control,” said Zhu Lieke, deputy director of the State Forestry Administration.
However, “the work in this regard remains tough,” Zhu told the Beijing International Conference on Women and Desertification held in the Chinese capital.’
(“International Conference on Women and Desertification” thats pretty specific..)
Does anybody have an offical source on the distance of the desert from Beijing? (maybe not gov.cn…)
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