Wide cooperation needed against sandstorm threats

• Source: Global Times
• [21:15 March 25 2010]
• Comments

Xia Ri

Liu Jiangyong

Editor's Note:

Many parts of China were hit by one of the largest sandstorms for years on Saturday morning. The sandstorm was so large it could be captured in satellite images, looking like a weather front. The problem of sandstorms has attracted public attention not only in China but also in other affected countries, such as Mongolia, Japan, and South Korea. Global Times (GT) reporter Wang Yuan talked with Xia Ri (Xia), president of the Association of Sand Industry and Grass Industry of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, and Liu Jiangyong (Liu), deputy director of the Institution of International Strategic Studies in Tsinghua University, on intergovernmental cooperation on sandstorms and other environmental issues.

GT: What areas were hit by Saturday's sandstorm? Where did it originate?

Xia: Inside China, the source of the sandstorm was the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, where all of China's eight deserts and four sandy areas are located. Gansu Province and the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region also contributed.

Outside China, the dust and sand mainly came from Mongolia. Southern Mongolia has suffered serious desertification, partly due to the natural environment and partly because of human-caused changes. Some said Central Asia may be another source, but this remains unclear.

However, the wind can come from other regions, like Siberia or ever further areas. Once there is strong wind, dust and tiny pieces of sand will be heaved into the air, causing flying dust, flying sand and even sandstorms.

It can affect an extremely large area, including most regions of China and Mongolia and parts of Japan and the Korean Peninsula.

GT: So sandstorm abatement needs all these countries' efforts?

Xia: Yes. Sandstorms are fundamentally caused by regional drought as well as global human activities. Everyone bears some responsibilities.

People living in sandy areas need help. Most of them are poor, and to some extent they bear the costs of man-made climate change that others have caused. They are making every possible effort to control desertification now.

On the other hand, Japan and South Korea, although not the source of the sandstorm, also suffer. Cooperating with sandstorm abatement programs helps them too.

Liu: Environment problems, including extreme weather like sandstorms, do not arise from conflicts among people, but from conflicts between humanity and nature. The ecological effects and energy shortages they bring, along with the spreading of disease, affect all countries.

We should not blame any country when sandstorms rage, as their contributing factors and influences are borderless. Not only regional cooperation, but also global cooperation, is necessary.

GT: Is there any international cooperation, especially in Northeast Asia, on sandstorms? Is the current level of cooperation enough?

Liu: Intergovernmental cooperation is still in its infancy. At the moment, there is just some cooperation at the governmental level in the monitoring of dust levels.

However, there is little cooperation in actual sandstorm abatement and desertification control. It's partly because no country has much knowledge or experience of sandstorm abatement.

More importantly, many important government departments and experts haven't become involved in the international institutions yet.

Take China. It's the State Forestry Administration that's in charge of China's desertification control, and its efforts concentrate on increasing vegetation cover.

However, mastering climate and weather information is more important, and weather modification is actually an important measure.

Thus the meteorological departments should have been involved. If the international cooperation could also include the Japanese and South Korean meteorological departments, things would be better.

Xia: There is some cooperation at the civil level. Some activists from different countries are working together on sandstorm abatement. They have come to China to participate in preventing and controlling desertification for years, helping a lot in increasing vegetation and providing donations and loans.

But it's not enough. In my opinion, there should be a large-scale international cooperation effort.

We have established the Foundation for Desertification Prevention and Control, which would collect funds from local and international sources. The funds could be used to popularize relevant environmental knowledge and organize desertification prevention and control activities.

We would name international donators as honorary council members or even erect monuments for them. We cannot totally rely on governmental investments, so we need international support, at both the governmental level and the individual level.