"China is now at war," said Brown. "It is not invading armies that are
claiming its territory, but expanding deserts. Old deserts are advancing and
new ones are forming, like guerrilla forces striking unexpectedly, forcing
Beijing to fight on several fronts. And China is losing the war. The deserts
are claiming an ever larger piece of territory each year."
The flow of refugees has already begun, as villages are overrun by sand
dunes in Inner Mongolia, Gansu, and Ningxia Provinces. A Chinese scientist
doing grassland research in Xilingol Prefecture in Inner Mongolia estimates
that if recent trends of desertification continue, the region will be
uninhabitable in 15 years. An Asian Development Bank assessment of
desertification in Gansu Province reports that 4,000 villages risk being
overrun by drifting sands.
The U.S. Dust Bowl of the 1930s forced some 3 million "Okies" and other
refugees to leave the land, many of them heading west from Oklahoma, Texas,
and Kansas to California. But the dust bowl forming in China is much larger
than that one was, and China's population of 1.3 billon dwarfs the U.S.
population at that time of 150 million. Whereas the U.S. migration was
measured in the millions, China's may measure in the tens of millions. And
as a U.S. embassy report noted, "unfortunately, China's 21st-century 'Okies'
have no California to escape to, at least not in China."
claiming its territory, but expanding deserts. Old deserts are advancing and
new ones are forming, like guerrilla forces striking unexpectedly, forcing
Beijing to fight on several fronts. And China is losing the war. The deserts
are claiming an ever larger piece of territory each year."
The flow of refugees has already begun, as villages are overrun by sand
dunes in Inner Mongolia, Gansu, and Ningxia Provinces. A Chinese scientist
doing grassland research in Xilingol Prefecture in Inner Mongolia estimates
that if recent trends of desertification continue, the region will be
uninhabitable in 15 years. An Asian Development Bank assessment of
desertification in Gansu Province reports that 4,000 villages risk being
overrun by drifting sands.
The U.S. Dust Bowl of the 1930s forced some 3 million "Okies" and other
refugees to leave the land, many of them heading west from Oklahoma, Texas,
and Kansas to California. But the dust bowl forming in China is much larger
than that one was, and China's population of 1.3 billon dwarfs the U.S.
population at that time of 150 million. Whereas the U.S. migration was
measured in the millions, China's may measure in the tens of millions. And
as a U.S. embassy report noted, "unfortunately, China's 21st-century 'Okies'
have no California to escape to, at least not in China."