China Faces Reign of Sand: Circle of Blue Reports on Inner Mongolia's Expanding Desert
21/01/2008 08:04
PR Newswire
INNER MONGOLIA, China, January 21 /PRNewswire/ --
- With Photo
- Collaborative journalism project covers front lines of global water
crisis
Furious dust and sandstorms from Inner Mongolia cripple airports, darken
skies, and choke millions of people across East Asia every spring. According
to "Reign of Sand," the new multimedia report from Circle of Blue
(http://www.circleofblue.org), the storms are growing in intensity and
frequency, and the primary causes are deepening drought in northern China and
the mismanagement of the largest grasslands on earth.
(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20080121/DC11917 )
"It's much more than a landscape surrendering to the sand," says J. Carl
Ganter, director of Circle of Blue, the journalism-based news, science and
collaborative project covering water issues worldwide. "We're looking at a
crucial international economic and environmental story that has implications
for us all."
As China prepares for the Summer Olympic Games in August, international
focus on its air pollution is increasing. The main target is to reduce urban
smog from car and coal emissions, but China's sand storms are an equal threat
to air quality and human health. They are often driven by 80 mile-per-hour
winds that last for days. These storms, along with the water shortages and
the land degradation causing them, underscore the extreme stress that China's
economic development is putting on its environment and its 1.3 billion
people.
"Reign of Sand" comes as China's spring dust storms approach. Scientists
say the severity and frequency of the dust storms reflect worsening
conditions: Dryer climate, stronger winds, water shortages, over-grazing,
population growth, and a clash between nomadic herders and the government
over range and farmland management.
Globally, the UN estimates that two-thirds of the world's population will
live in areas of water stress within the next 20 years.
A nonprofit project of the Oakland, California-based Pacific Institute
(http://www.pacinst.org), Circle of Blue covers the challenges and solutions
of the global freshwater crisis using leading talents in journalism, science,
data and design. Circle of Blue is a member project of the Clinton Global
Initiative (http://www.clintonglobalinitiative.org). "Reign of Sand" was
produced with the help of the China Environment Forum
(http://www.wilsoncenter.org/cef) of the Woodrow Wilson International Center
for Scholars, a Washington-based research institute that specializes in world
affairs.
Full multimedia coverage is online at http://www.circleofblue.org/
Expanded release, photographs and resources:
http://www.circleofblue.org/news
Available Topic Expert(s): For information on the listed expert(s), click
appropriate link.
Peter Gleick
http://profnet.prnewswire.com/Subscriber/ExpertProfile.aspx?ei=72212
Jennifer Turner
http://profnet.prnewswire.com/Subscriber/ExpertProfile.aspx?ei=72213
Note to Editors:
A picture accompanying this release is available through the PA
Photowire. It can be downloaded from http://www.pa-mediapoint.press.net or
viewed at http://www.mediapoint.press.net or http://www.prnewswire.co.uk.
A picture accompanying this release is available from the European
Pressphoto Agency (EPA) at http://www.epa-photos.com .
Web site: http://www.circleofblue.org
Keith Schneider, senior editor of Circle of Blue, +1-202-351-6870 x130, media@circleofblue.org; or Jennifer Turner of Wilson Center - China Environment Forum, +1-202-691-4233, cef@wilsoncenter.org; Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20080121/DC11917 , PRN Photo Desk, photodesk@prnewswire.com