Went to a pretty impressive talk last night at the Royal Geographical Society about Wild China. Gavin Maxwell, one of the directors of the BBC’s current series on China’s wild places, gave a brief tour around the country, supplemented with clips from the documentary and gorgeous pictures. I haven’t splurged for my TV license since I’ve been in the UK, but I’m tempted to after last night.
At one point, Maxwell mentioned one of China’s latest grand projects: the Green Wall. Now that the Three Gorges Dam is complete and Olympics-related construction is wrapping up, China seems to be looking for something to do. The Green Wall would combat the trend of desertification that is threatening to inundate Beijing and other populated areas. Fingers of the Gobi Desert are now less than 200 miles from the capital city and encroaching rapidly. For weeks at a time, Beijing is shrouded in suffocating dust storms, a period some have dubbed “the fifth season.”
The proposed solution is to plant a 2800 mile-long stretch of forest. The trees, it is hoped, will anchor the soil and act as a buffer between the Gobi and the city.
Regardless of whether or not this will actually work, I am slightly encouraged by this ambitious undertaking. So often, these kinds of enormous, nation-wide projects in China or the former USSR are presented in an ominous light, often for good reason. But with the Green Wall, it seems that a sense of national pride and ambition can be used for good. To be fair, this will only occur when it is in the government’s interest to do so, but it is a good sign, particularly for environmentalists. The Green Wall hints at a growing environmental consciousness in China, something Maxwell confirmed. China is uniquely positioned, because of its population and political weight, to set the course of greenhouse gas trends for better or for worse. We can only hope that the government will take this opportunity as a challenge to produce green technologies on a large scale. As the expansion of the Gobi Desert shows, it would be in everyone’s best interest to do so.
A beautiful, if not completely relevant, photo of a cave in China.
I expect there are many mountains in western Sichuan in need of some reforestation. Has anyone heard whether there is a correlation between the earthquake-induced slides and the age of the forest cover on the slopes?
Those western Sichuan mountains are amazingly rugged and beautiful country. If I were to work on a reforestation project, I’d prefer to work in Sichuan — it would be hard to find better food (yue la, yue hao)!
I love these grand projets. I’m like a wide-eyed child when I read about the huge buildings and islands-shaped-like-palm-trees in Dubai. It’s good to see China considering something so grand that will also have a positive environmental impact.
Meanwhile, London gets Terminal Five and the Millennium Dome.