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China’s “Green Miracle”- Reforestation of Kubuqi Desert

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China’s “Green Miracle”- Reforestation of Kubuqi Desert

Web Desk On Aug 9, 2018 Last updated Aug 9, 2018

Kubuqi Desert in Inner Mongolia of China, comprises of around 18,600 sq km of golden sand dunes that plunge south in an arc from the country’s Yellow River. Centuries of grazing had denuded the land of all vegetation, and the region’s 740,000 people were wallowing in isolated poverty.

But it is now improving. A Chinese firm Elion Resources Group in 1988 partnered with local people and the the government to combat desertification. Almost three decades later, one third of the desert has been greened. Special plants have been grown to grip the shifting sands and to prevent the dunes encroaching on farms and villages.

The cattle have returned, and secondary industries have sprung up, with tourists flocking to new locally-run hotels and restaurants, eager to explore the dunes on boards and buggies. The United Nations Environment Programme estimates the Kubuqi Ecological Restoration Project — to give the greening of the desert its formal name — to be worth $1.8 billion over 50 years.

Kubuqi’s transformation burnishes China’s credentials as an environmental leader at a time when Washington is retreating from its international commitments. When President Donald Trump refused to reconsider U.S. withdrawal from the Paris Climate agreement.

Chinese President Xi Jinping had already made that pitch when he become the first Chinese leader to address the World Economic Forum in Davos in January, calling the Paris Agreement “a responsibility we must assume for future generations.” China is the world’s largest renewable-energy investor (nearly $90 billion last year) and employs 40% of the sector’s global workforce, aiming for 13 million jobs by 2020. Today, five of the world’s top six solar manufacturing firms hail from China, where the cost of panels dropped 30% this year.

Kubuqi boasts China’s largest single-stage solar farm, boasting 650,000 fixed and sun-tracking panels, which together channel 1,000 megawatts of electricity into the national grid.

The Kubuqi project illustrates how private firms can tackle environmental degradation, boost livelihoods and safeguarding the planet — all while chasing profits for themselves. The scheme won Elion the 2013 Global Dryland Champion Award — a prize given out by the U.N. Convention to Combat Desertification — in recognition of the “tremendous impact” on local people’s lives.
https://arynews.tv/en/china-green-miracle-reforestation-kubuqi-desert/amp/?__twitter_impression=true
 
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People's Daily,China @PDChina 52m52 minutes ago
#Kubuqi, the 7th largest desert in China, is a good example of China's success in alleviating desertification. About 6,460 square kilometers of the Kubuqi desert has been reclaimed in the last 30 years.

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This could be done in Cholistan and Katpana desert. We are going to plant 10 billion trees in next five years might as well reclaim some desert land.
 
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More screen shots from news story on this project, before/ after comparison, how people have been working on it. they should be self explanatory:
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On a side note, many of these restoration projects are financed though mobile payments users “purchasing” their own trees via app like Ant Forest and the users can watch their trees to grow and collect credit. Even technically you are not owning it, it still gives you a sense of achievement and other side credit. This is getting increasingly popular in China with greater awareness on environmental issues. See some photos below:
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People should realise, ultimately we can be the masters of our collective destiny. We as individuals just have to take appropriate action to do our part.

10 second tree planting on Douyin app

Recreation and tourism industry.

From satellite imagery we can see 3 reservoirs in the Kubuqi desert, each about 1.3-1.5 km wide. One reservoir has a 18 hole golf course adjacent to it.
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Why CCP afraid to draw water from tsangpo river ? Need permission from Modi?
Quite the contrary. Besides just because Tsangpo river is dammed doesn't mean the water can be diverted elsewhere, that's a whole other project. Though the red flag river project uses mostly natural features for the water diversion, tunnels, reservoirs and many other dams would be needed, thus they need to be built first.

The project to dam Tsangpo river is immense. One or two dams are not enough to complete the project, it is not as simple as placing a giant dam on Tsangpo river and be done with it, the river cannot be tamed that easily. Before the main dam projects can be initiated, the tributaries must be dammed first which China is currently undertaking. Along with the tributaries being dammed, infrastructure such as roads, bridges, tunnels, and high voltage electric grid must be gradually built to accommodate the construction and power transmission.

Not just the tributaries but the main upstream river would also be dammed. Political frictions with India has little influence on this project. 3 more dams in addition to the Zangmu (藏木) dam have been approved.
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Dam projects are converging on Tsangpo river from two main directions, one from the West within Tibet and the other from the East (gradually building upstream from Sichuan and Yunnan). The trail of dam projects also leaves behind a trail of infrastructure. Much of the needed infrastructure to build the final dams are currently non-existent.
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Lianghekou dam is already on the Tibetian plateau, though its in Sichuan. Workers and engineers are occupied by other major projects, can't be instantly diverted to another project. They are progressing according to a larger plan.
 
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