BEIJING, CHINA—The dust works its way through keyholes and window frames, and smells like a filthy brew of dirt, smoke and metallic particles. The sky turns magenta and whole buildings disappear. Eyes tear up and throats get sore from coughing.http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/783348--china-choked-by-sandstorms-as-pollution-levels-rise
Northern China’s spring sandstorms blew in with particular ferocity over the weekend, bringing misery to people working outdoors Monday in Beijing and across a wide swath of the country.
"We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children." A Liberal-supporting, environmentalist blog. We blog according to our opinions, not those of the party or government. Free speech must win and that's why we have this blog. The views of two Montrealers and a Libertarian.
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
The Climate Change Reality: Sandstorms
In China, a series of sandstorms are swooping across the country. Because of desertification in certain regions, the earth turns to sand and is easily picked up by the wind. The sand picks up pollution particles and whips them across the city: another reason why pollution isn’t good. This desertification is a consequence of climate change. Heavy drought in areas will cause regions to become deserts. Not only that but droughts will make it harder for people to push back the desert by planting trees. More and more signs of the climate change reality are being seen. When will the politicians obstructing action like Stephen Harper see what is happening and take action?
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Just read an article about 2 dinosaur fossils being recovered. Guess what, they figure they were buried alive by sandstorms 75 million years ago. Don't think there was alot of pollution/human-induced global warming then. Perhaps you need to read up on the subject a little more?
ReplyDeleteClimate change is happening and we should be doing everything we can to switch from fossil fuels to renewables. I doubt our government will take any action until they are forced to by public pressure. I am pinning my hopes on citizens' groups such as Greenpeace to sway public opinion in the right direction.
ReplyDeleteLeftist Mental Disordered Kool Aid Drinker.
ReplyDeleteHAHAHAHA
Wow; Climate change is happening!! Just when did
ReplyDeletethis start? First global cooling in the 70,s with
warnings of doom and man made ice ages,then golbal warming for the last 30 years and warnings of tidal waves ,disapeering glaciers
and all sorts of disaters and ,oh yeah ,we are now heading for golbal cooling now for the next 30 years, hmmm better caqll it what it is cliamte change -egad ,that has been happening for billions of years. What dribble
There have been sand storms in China for a very, very long time predating the industrial revolution by hundreds of years;
ReplyDeleteHuman activities play an important role in the formation of severe sandstorms, basically through improper use of land, population growth and the rapid spread of urbanization.
Beijing is located in the northern part of the Northern Plains of China. The west (Taihang Mountain), the north (Jundu Mountain) and the east (Yan Mountain) of Beijing are mountain areas. Lots of rivers stream out from these areas. Some of them pass through the territory of Beijing, for example Yongding, Chaobai and Wenyu rivers which used to be big rivers in ancient times, carrying large quantities of water and hence causing considerable erosion, with much bedrock moved along their course.
The speed of water slowed down after the rivers entered into the plain, and the bedloads sedimented gradually. Beijing is located on the fan-shaped bed-rock sediments originating from the Taihang Mountain, Jundu Mountain and Yan Mountain.
Originally, there were lots of flourishing virgin forests, which had the obvious function of preventing sandy winds. How-ever, due to wars and the needs of construction for development of Beijing, these virgin forests were cut down and almost exhausted. Only some replanted trees were left in scattered mountain areas. According to statistics, the cover rate of forest in Beijing in 1950s was only 1.3 3.5%.
Strong winds have become more frequent. The elevation of
Beijing area is below 50 metres, but the elevation of the northern mountain area is above 1,000 metres. The difference in topo-graphy facilitates the wind entering from mountain areas to plain areas. When the wind passes through the river valleys, due to the effect of topography, the power of wind is enhanced. In winter and spring, the average wind speed is 3.03.5 m/s, but on an increasing number of days it reaches above 45 m/s, which is the wind speed needed to release sand particles under dry soil moisture conditions.
The activity of sandy winds in Beijing is influenced basically by local factors, but it also originates from the nearby peripheral provinces. Thus sand in the storms in Beijing include both local sources and sand from near-by Hebei and Inner Mongolia Autonomous Provinces.
Of course there has been sandstorms since a long time ago. However pollution and global warming makes it worse. Desertification = more sand. More sand = more sandstorms.
ReplyDelete