CHINA'S BATTLE WITH THE EXPANSION OF DESERTS

China's desert encroaching

One of the many climate issues being blamed on global warming is the expansion of deserts. The United Nations says drought could impact 70 per cent of the world's land over the next 15 years.
In China, overgrazing, irrigation farming, and land degradation, combined with drought, are turning more and more fertile land barren.
A reports from the Kubuqi Desert, China is launching a new project it hopes will stop the sand spreading.

• So far China has planted 12 billion trees over the past five years in an effort to restore its scarce forest cover and combat flooding and the loss of farmland blamed on excessive tree-cutting. The new trees, many planted by volunteers, covered 80 million acres.
  
• China has been trying for more than a decade to reverse the rapid loss of what little remains of its forests. Experts blame heavy tree-cutting, spurred by rapid economic growth, for the loss of farmland to deserts and devastating summer flooding in areas where denuded hillsides fail to trap rainfall.
• Tree-planting in northern China has helped to reduce the severity of the spring dust storms in Beijing and other northern cities.

Source: The Agencies