China's sandstorms blast Beijing with dust, sand

[Coventina]

Source: Washington Post

BEIJING -- 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.

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.

"It gets in your throat, under your clothes, in your bed," said Beijing street sweeper Xue Yuan. "I hate it, but there's really nothing you can do."

The storms are a product of worsening desertification in Inner Mongolia and other Gobi Desert regions hundreds of miles to the north and west of Beijing caused by overgrazing, deforestation, drought and urban sprawl. Strong winds pick up the loose dust and dirt, mixing them with industrial pollution.

Beijing's air quality index was set at Level 4, one grade better than the most serious Level 5 that was reached Saturday as the mixture of sand, dust and pollution blasted the capital. City meteorologists said conditions would improve, but warned the sand would linger through midweek.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/22/AR2010032200676.html

[fatbuckel]

1. Journalistic Augmentation....

did you notice how no mention of global warming appeared in this story? They called it everything but...

[420inTN]

2. The desertification isn't due to Global Warming, per se.

That's not to say that AGW hasn't exacerbated the problem, but mostly it's due to overgrazing, deforestation, drought and urban sprawl and has been caused by decades of land abuse.

Somewhat similar to the conditions that created the Dust Bowl in the US during the Great Depression.

I saw an interesting show about it last year (can't remember if it was PBS or one of the Discovery/Nat Geo channels).

[Javaman]

3. A to B to C....

Why is this happening? Who is a major contributor to this? Our insatiable appetite for crap and our good friends over at walmart, or as I like to call them China-mart.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/chi-china-cashmere-htmlstory,0,7007933.htmlstory

Your cheap sweater's real cost
That inexpensive sweater exacts a hidden toll: dust-borne pollution that reaches America.

>snip<

In less than a decade, a deluge of cheap cashmere from China has transformed a centuries-old industry, stripping the plush fabric of its pricey pedigree and making it available in big-box America. Chinese-made cashmere sweaters now go for as little as $19.99.

>snip<

The country's enormous herds of cashmere-producing goats have slashed the price of sweaters. But they also have helped graze Chinese grasslands down to a moonscape, unleashing some of the worst dust storms on record. This in turn fuels a plume of pollution heavy enough to reach the skies over North America.

>snip<

Zhang was in a good mood; one of his partners, Edenweiss International, said it had just received an order for 300,000 cashmere coats from Wal-Mart.

>snip<

The problem is being ignored, Patthey said. And it's easy to see why. With U.S. demand at an all-time high, companies continue to build new factories and buy more expensive equipment--putting themselves deeper in debt. That glut of production, in turn, pushes prices ever lower.

(read the whole article it's a very good read)

[LibertyLover]

4. In July, 1979 I was in Beijing for several days

and the sand from the Gobi was pretty bad, but nothing like this. After my group returned to the hotel (in those days it was The People's Friendship Hotel) after a day of seeing the sights you could see and feel the sand on you. So before going to dinner you would take a quick shower. After the shower you would see all the sand in the tub and realize that it had not just come off you but had come in in the water you were using to remove the sand. Somehow that shower just didn't seem as refreshing after that.