Desertification - 2 Flashcards
State the impacts on China’s environment.
25% of China is suffering from severe land degradation.
Deserts are advancing on, and destroying farms and towns.
China’s watertable has fallen significantly, meaning soil degradation and erosion is increasing.
Due to the deposition of silt, the Hong Yashan Reservoir, Asia’s largest dam, has reduced in capacity by a third.
State the impacts on the economy.
Farmer’s incomes have decreased substantially as they can no longer produce as many crops.
Crops, buildings, and power lines are being damaged by sandstorms.
China is having to spend increasing amounts of money on food imports. In 2014, it spent 122$ billion on agricultural products.
State the social impacts.
Some villages near the gobi desert are being restricted to only 1 hour of running water a day.
Many villages have already been ‘swallowed’ by the encroaching deserts. Residents are being forced to relocate and create new homes.
Sandstorms known as the ‘yellow dragon’ have been increasing. This mostly affects Beijing, negatively impacting people’s health and movement.
Describe local responses to desertification in china.
Since 1985, a local farmer in Ning Xia has been planting large grids of straw, in order to decrease wind erosion and halt the advancing deserts. The strategy has been quite effective, though is very labour intensive. Since 1985, he has planted 2010 hectares of trees every year to prevent desertification.
