Drought Promotes Sandstorms in North China: ExpertSevere drought suffered by north China last year is considered the major cause of sandstorms that swept this region recently, said an expert with the State Administration of Forestry (SAF)."The drought has prevented the grass from growing this spring, and this made the surface soil easily blown away," said Yang Weixi, professor with the National Bureau to Combat Desertification under the SAF. Another expert from the Chinese Central Meteorological Station (CCMS) noted that sandstorms were also caused by repeated cold fronts coming from the north as well as last winter's warm weather that thawed the ground earlier. Yang said that the sandstorms are likely to become more violent and frequent than last year if the cold fronts continue to hit China in the same way. Last year's first sandstorm hit north China in March, but an unexpected floating dust storm paid a visit to several provinces and autonomous regions at the beginning of this year. Last Saturday Beijing also witnessed a strong dust wind. Experts here said this year's sandstorms were the earliest since the 1980s. The pasture in northern China has shrunk this spring due to the drought but the number of cattle and sheep did not reduce, which left the soil more exposed to the strong gale, Yang said. Deserts throughout northern China have also expanded due to economic activities, like logging, strip mining, and the blind expansion of cropland, he added. Last year's sandstorms not only swept throughout north China but also influenced some provinces along the Yangtze River and even in south China. The government has promoted afforestation programs in these regions. One of them, which started to take shape this year, aims to set up an anti-desert shelterbelt stretching over a 4,480 kilometer area of mostly desert in north China. |
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