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Robin NIXON blog
http://robinnixon.com/blog/2007/11/16/china-losing-a-million-acres-a-year-to-desertification/
China losing a million acres a year to desertification
Moon lake in north-eastern China attracts a million visitors a year, but now it looks more like a village pond, encircled by railings and fading fast as the desert sucks up more and more water. In the 1960s, the lake used to be 10 metres deep – now it is barely one metre. The disappearing lake at this point of the Silk Road is the most powerful symbol of an emerging water crisis.
The fields around the village are brown and desolate, and it is hard to imagine how anything could grow here. Two years ago the farmers were ordered to stop digging thousands of wells to irrigate their cotton fields because the water simply was not there any more.
The government in Beijing acknowledges desertification as the biggest environmental challenge holding back sustainable development, and has pledged to control the country’s spreading deserts, which already cover a fifth of its land.
Full story
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