UNEP - NE Asian Sandstorms 5 Times More Frequent Than 50 Yrs Ago

[hatrack]

SOGWIPO, South Korea - "Dust and sand storms have plagued Northeast Asia for centuries but are getting worse in modern times, environment officials said yesterday. Storms affect the region nearly five times as frequently as they did five decades ago, but strategies remain elusive, delegates from 158 countries were told on the final day of a United Nations Environment Program conference.

"They are man-made and nature-influenced disaster," the executive director of the UN Environment Program, Klaus Toepfer, told a forum yesterday. "In the past 40 years, there has been a huge increase in the occurrence of the event, not only the number but the intensity has increased," he said.

EDIT

The storms have occurred sporadically over the past century, raging in some years while nearly absent in others. But there is evidence that the storms are gradually intensifying in recent years.

The storms in the region peaked in the spring two years ago, when Seoul recorded dust particle levels of 2,500 micrograms per cubic meter, more than twice the level deemed hazardous to health. On the same March day, Beijing recorded nearly six times the dust particle level of 12,000 micrograms per cubic meter."

EDIT/END

http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/24531/story.htm

[smirkymonkey]

1. I might have missed something in the article,

but what causes them - how are they man-made and what greater environmental factors over the past 50 years has caused them to proliferate?

Could they happen in other parts of the world?

[NNadir]

2. They happened in the United States in the 1930's.

It was called "The Dust Bowl."

It's a function of unsustainable agricultural practices, essentially "over farming."

[smirkymonkey]

3. Thanks. I always thought that

was a figurative term. Will have to look it up on Google. :)