Soil Erosion, Biggest Global Environmental Problem

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Tuesday, May 28, 2002

Soil Erosion, Biggest Global Environmental Problem

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Soil erosion remains the world's biggest environmental problem, threatening both developed and developing countries, according to sources at the 12th International Soil Conservation Organization (ISCO) Conference, which opened Monday in Beijing.

Some 700 Chinese and foreign scientists attended the conference.

"When soil gives away its fertility, human beings will lose the fundamental living source that we are relying on, " said Jiao Juren, director of the Soil and Water Conservation Department of the Ministry of Water Resources.

Dr. Josef Rosner from Austria said that soil erosion is the direct cause of environmental deterioration and poverty in many parts of the world, and it exists in both developed and developing countries.

Sources at the conference said that 65 percent of the soil on earth display degradation phenomena, such as erosion, desertification and salinization.

In Europe, 12 percent of the soil is threatened by water erosion, and four percent by wind erosion. Soil erosion is also found on 95 million hectares of land in North America and 500 million hectares in Africa.

Economic losses from water and soil erosion as well as salinization in South Asia have accumulated to 5.4 billion, 1.8 billion and 1.5 billion U.S. dollars, respectively.

China faces one of the most serious soil erosion problems in the world. The latest remote-sensing survey shows that the country has some 3.56 million square kilometers of soil erosion areas, accounting for 37 percent of China's total territory.

Mark Nearing, a member of the ISCO, said that soil erosion affects not only economic development but climate changes, because the process of soil erosion releases carbonium ions into the air, while carbon dioxide is the primary cause of global warming.

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