RP364 The Siege of Beijing

 RP364 The Siege of Beijing

Beijing is a city under siege, and the threat isn't coming from any country or group of rebels. It's not people at all. Rather, it's the Gobi Desert, and it's slowly winning the fight.
Every year, the Gobi Desert expands more than 3,300 square kilometers. On the eastern side it is pushing closer to Beijing, and experts worry the city could be on the verge of desertification. While alarming, this phenomenon is not exactly new. It's actually been going on for quite a long time. Back in 2006, the Chinese government announced that 27 percent of China's landmass was desert, up from 18 percent in 1994. In other words, it only took 12 years for nine percent of China's landmass to be swallowed up by growing deserts. However, since 2006 the rate of expansion seems to be less drastic—but it certainly hasn't stopped.
When it comes to the expansion of the Gobi Desert, the list of contributing factors is quite long. Two of the biggest ones are the presence of too many grazing animals and widespread deforestation. The growth of China's cities has also contributed to the problem by increasing demands on underground water supplies. This has left the soil more vulnerable to desertification.
The Chinese government is determined to win its battle against the sandy menace, and to do so, it has decided to fight nature with nature. The Green Wall of China is a government program that aims to build a massive barrier of trees to protect China's cities from desertification. The program was started in 1978. Its goal is to plant a 4,480-kilometer wall of trees by 2050, that spans all the way from Xinjiang to Heilongjiang. By then, they expect forests to cover 42 percent of China's landmass. This ambitious project will also help in the fight against global warming.
But will the Green Wall be enough to save Beijing? Some experts remain skeptical. They argue that trees are easy to plant but hard to take care of over the long term, especially when the trees being planted are non-native breeds that aren't suited to the environment. If they're right, then violent sandstorms will be the least of Beijing's problems. Residents could one day wake up to find their houses have been buried in sand.