Loess Plateau. I was there in Xi'an about 2months ago. Xi'an, Langzou and Xinning on our way to Tibet. Not that this makes me in any way an expert on anything. While I think there is some hopeful things happening in China to protect the environment, I don't think your example is very good.
There are parts of China where it is extremely smoggy (Beijing) and dirty (Xi'an), yet parts where it was very clean (Zhangjiajie). Each Chinese province is unique from the next. But as a country as a whole they are currently undergoing an effort to clean up their environment. There were signs not just telling people not to litter, but explaining that the environment is everyone's responsibility. In Xinning there was a huge international green environmental investment/development convention going on in Xining. I saw many billboards and newspaper articles talking about it. I think this is the direction that China seems to be heading in.
Have to remember that the Loess plateau is along the old Silk Road trade route along the southern border of the Gobi desert. They have camels still. It is the fringe of the desert although aproximately 1000m higher in elevation. When we were there Xi'an was very dry and holy shit hot at 45cel (115 American). A few days later Xining was rainy and a refreshing 35cel ( 95 American).
What I'm seeing in your pics look like stepped crops to me. Which suggests it is irrigated. Just like in USA one of the most popular crops is corn, but unlike USA the asian stocks have one ear each. (I thought it was quite unusual to see only one ear on a corn stock but I never saw more then one ear per)
Higher up in the Himalayas we saw the glacial remains and very few actual glaciers. I understand this isn't recent occurrence, at least not in memory of Tibetans we met. But the lake levels are getting shallower. The Chinese are draining lakes for the many mining operations in the area.
no subject
There are parts of China where it is extremely smoggy (Beijing) and dirty (Xi'an), yet parts where it was very clean (Zhangjiajie). Each Chinese province is unique from the next. But as a country as a whole they are currently undergoing an effort to clean up their environment. There were signs not just telling people not to litter, but explaining that the environment is everyone's responsibility. In Xinning there was a huge international green environmental investment/development convention going on in Xining. I saw many billboards and newspaper articles talking about it. I think this is the direction that China seems to be heading in.
Have to remember that the Loess plateau is along the old Silk Road trade route along the southern border of the Gobi desert. They have camels still. It is the fringe of the desert although aproximately 1000m higher in elevation. When we were there Xi'an was very dry and holy shit hot at 45cel (115 American). A few days later Xining was rainy and a refreshing 35cel ( 95 American).
What I'm seeing in your pics look like stepped crops to me. Which suggests it is irrigated. Just like in USA one of the most popular crops is corn, but unlike USA the asian stocks have one ear each. (I thought it was quite unusual to see only one ear on a corn stock but I never saw more then one ear per)
Higher up in the Himalayas we saw the glacial remains and very few actual glaciers. I understand this isn't recent occurrence, at least not in memory of Tibetans we met. But the lake levels are getting shallower. The Chinese are draining lakes for the many mining operations in the area.