Читать книгу How Can I Stop Climate Change: What is it and how to help - Литагент HarperCollins USD, F. M. L. Thompson - Страница 34

Specially planted shrubs will form part of a 700 km live barrier, intended to hold back inner Mongolia’s desertification and prevent dust storms disrupting the 2008 Olympics in nearby Beijing.

In South Korea massive dust storms blowing over the border from China were so bad in 2002 that primary schools had to be closed. The storms, which have already cost China more than US $2 billion a year in lost land and productivity, threaten the livelihood of at least 170 million people, and are increasing in frequency. There are even fears that they could blight the 2008 Beijing Olympics. More than 30 per cent of the total land area of China is now being affected by desertification.

Indeed a third of the Earth’s land surface is vulnerable to desertification. Over-grazing and damaging irrigation schemes have already taken their toll, but climate change may be the final straw for such areas. According to the United Nations, desertification could drive 50 million people from their homes in the next ten years.