China: Great Dragon Rising - Dragons and Tigers: A Geography of South, East and Southeast Asia - page 329

has endangered the success of the project. Other plans for
pipelines further west have been put on hold.
As aquifers are depleted, the ground subsides.
Forty-six of China' is cities are sinking. Shanghai is sink-
ing half an inch (1.5 cm) every year. Planners are con-
sidering putting limits on the heights of buildings
because the weight of skyscrapers contributes to the
sinking process.
Sea levels along China' s coast are rising. For exam-
ple, seawater has risen 4.5 inches (11.5 cm) and waters
off Tianjin have risen 7.7 inches (20 cm) over the past
three decades. This is being caused by global warming
and the fact that aquifers are being depleted causing the
land to sink. Salt water is leaching into Shanghai' is fresh-
water aquifer.
Deforestation and desertification are also serious
problems. Throughout history , China' s forests have been
decimated through human occupance and farming, the
requirements for home construction, and the need for do-
mestic fuel. Forests were also ravaged to make industrial
charcoal and to manufacture ships. During the last three
decades alone, a quarter of China' s forests have vanished.
Soil erosion and desertification are direct consequences of
deforestation. Desertification and land degradation are
wiping out nearly a million acres of grassland a year—an
area almost as large as Rhode Island.
One of the most severely eroded regions is the Loess
Plateau of north central China, which is the most exten-
sive loess region on the face of the Earth. Wind and wa-
ter erosion have taken their toll over the centuries but
human activities aggravate the situation. Grazing of
sheep and goats on semiarid steppe lands removes the al-
ready sparse vegetative cover. Wind and water then erode
and dissect the region, and thousands of tons of loess
blow or flow away .
Unwise use of water for poorly planned or inadequate
irrigation schemes also contributes to land degradation.
This will probably get worse as most global-warming
models predict increasing aridity for countries in China' s
latitudes.
Efforts have been made to reforest areas, erect wind
breaks, and lock the sand in place with layers of straw or
clay basins. If successful in soil retention and irrigation,
these areas can be reclaimed for such crops as apples and
walnuts. Aerial seeding of grasses such as alfalfa (lucerne)
has been employed to vegetate bare hills. But salinity is an
ongoing hindrance as high potential evaporation rates
cause salts to rise to the surface through capillary action.
Then, flushing out the salts and special drainage are re-
quired, making the whole process very costly .

Sand storms are increasing in frequency . One storm
in 2006 dumped 300,000 tons of sand on Beijing. In
March 2010, a ferocious storm inundated the region with
dust and sand. In Beijing, the sky turned magenta and
buildings disappeared in the onslaught. Even Hong
Kong—1,240 miles (2,000 ha) away—was enshrouded.
People as far away as Taiwan wore masks. South Korea
said that this was the worst “yellow dust” haze since
2006. These storms can be expected to increase in fre-
quency and ferocity as desertification continues.
China has the world' s largest hydroelectric power
potential, yet it is developed to less than 10 percent. One
massive project has come to world attention for its con-
troversial impacts. This is the Three Gorges Dam on the
Yangzi (see Figure 11-15 for its location).
The Chang Jiang (Long River) is the longest river in
Asia and third longest in the world (Figure 11-25).
Known as the Yangzi to foreigners, the Chinese use that
name only for the last 300 or 400 miles (480 or 645 km)
of its 3,937-mile (6,300 km) course. Yichang, 1,000 miles
(1,600 km) from the sea, is the head of navigation for
river steamers. Ocean vessels may navigate the river to
Hankou, about 600 miles (1,000 km) from the sea. Be-
tween Yichang and Chongqing, at an altitude of 130 feet
(40 m), are the spectacular Three Gorges, noted for their
geological magnificence and cultural significance.
The river and its tributaries drain 650,000 square
miles (1,683,500 km 2 ) of territory . The entire region is
subject to floods. From the Han to the Qing Dynasties
(206 BC to 1911), devastating floods occurred once
every 10 years. During the last 300 years, dams have
been breached more than 60 times and flooding contin-
ues to be a problem all along the river. About one-third of
China' s population lives along its banks.
Beginning in May 2010, China experienced its worst
flooding in a decade. The floods and associated land-
slides affected some 28 provinces and regions through-
out the country . More than 1,000 people lost their lives
and 12 million had to be evacuated. Millions of acres of
farmland were inundated or totally destroyed.
The Three Gorges Dam project is the world' is largest
water conservation project, including the world' s most
powerful hydroelectric dam. The normal water level of
574 feet (175 m) will be reached in 2009, with a reservoir
covering 408 square miles (1,045 km 2 ). Its generating
capacity will be 18.2 kilowatts with a yearly output ca-
pacity of 84.7 billion kilowatt hours. This is equivalent to
burning 50 million tons of coal or 25 million tons of
crude oil. Should water power actually replace mineral
power, massive amounts of carbon dioxide, sulphur