The TLDR: The largest and strongest dust storm in a decade swept across northern China—shrouding Beijing in sand, turning its skies orange, and sending air pollution levels off the charts. Why this matters: the root cause is desertification which is as much of a danger in India—where a quarter of our land has turned to sand. 

How bad is it?

Ok, let’s start with visuals. This is Beijing on a normal day vs yesterday:

Here’s what it looked like outside one person’s apartment:

And thanks to China’s futuristic architecture, the images look like something out of an apocalyptic sci-fi movie:

It’s so bad that people are drawing parallels with Blade Runner 2046, even setting the scenes in the city to its music:

Now, the facts: 

• Beijing’s official air quality index reached a maximum level of 999 on Monday morning. 
• Levels of PM2.5—the small particles that infiltrate lungs—were above 600 micrograms in many parts of the city, reaching a 24-hour average of 200 before midday. The WHO considers any daily average above 25 as hazardous.
• The concentration of larger PM10 particles rose beyond 8,000 micrograms per cubic metre—160 times the recommended number.
• Visibility was reduced to between 300 (984 feet) and 800 metres (2,624 feet).
• The city issued a red alert for the very first time in its history—and cancelled flights, closed schools, and told people to stay indoors.

Why is this happening?

Short answer: Sandstorms are common during this time of the year—caused by winds blowing across the Gobi desert in Mongolia, and into northern China and even the Korean Peninsula. The natural cause for such storms: “[I]ntensely hot air over the desert causes the lower atmosphere to become unstable, leading to strong winds that stir up vast amounts of loose sand.” But this one is especially bad, “casting a ghastly shroud over tens of millions of people—from Xinjiang in the far west across to the Bohai Sea.” 

Adding to the smog: The effects of these dust storms on air pollution push up already high winter smog levels. And winter smog is no joke in China. It was so bad in 2014, the government decided to ‘televise’ sunrises on giant screens:

Point to note: In China, dust storms have become almost an annual occurrence since 1990, compared to an average of one every 31 years in the past. Also this:

“A single severe dust storm in 2006 dumped 330,000 tons of dust from the west onto Beijing: a stunning 44 pounds for each of the city’s residents. In 2007, a dust storm originating in China’s spreading Taklimakan Desert circled the globe in just under two weeks. In fact, in the first decade of the twenty-first century, China experienced 87 dust storms.”

What’s the long answer?

Desertification. In Northern China and Mongolia, there are two big deserts: the Badain Jaran and the Tengger—which are expanding and merging. Also growing: The Gobi desert. Nearly 20 percent of China is now desert, and drought across the northern region is getting worse. According to one recent estimate, China had 21,000 square miles more desert than what existed in 1975—which is the size of Croatia. Also: its desert area is expanding at the rate of 810.8 square miles every year—directly affecting nearly 400 million people.

A definition: Simply put, it’s the process by which fertile land becomes a desert. It is typically caused by drought, deforestation or bad agricultural practices. It typically occurs in regions that are ‘drylands’—i.e receive less rainfall or snow. And yes, global warming isn’t helping matters. These account for 38% of the world, as you can see in the map below: 

In China: desertification has been caused by a number of factors. The biggest among them: goats. Two new dust bowls have emerged in China due to overgrazing—when herders have more livestock than the land can sustain:

“When too many animals are grazed in the same area for too long, they destroy soil's protective crust and eat or trample all the vegetation, leaving nothing to anchor the soil when the wind blows. Grassland turns to wasteland.”

And when you add more goats to your livestock—as opposed to sheep, say—the problem becomes worse:

“‘Goats are hardier creatures than sheep or cattle; they eat everything. They'll even eat each other's hair! As the grasslands deteriorate, goats can still forage on shrubs,’ says [Earth Policy Institute expert Janet] Larsen. Goats can also cause more soil damage, since their hooves are sharper than sheep or cattle, she adds: ‘So when you see a big increase in goat numbers, it either means there's trouble, or trouble's coming’."

Point to note: China's goat population doubled between the mid-80s and mid-90s, and it had 151 million goats as of 2010. In comparison, the US had only 9 million sheep and goats in 2012. While the government has now clamped down on livestock, it doesn’t seem to have helped.

So what’s the solution?

The Chinese government has worked long and hard to re-green the country to prevent these kinds of storms. The big idea: building the ‘Great Green Wall’. In 1978, Beijing launched the Three-North Shelterbelt Project—which envisioned planting millions of trees across the  2,800 mile border of its Northern desert. The aim: to grow 35 million hectares (87 million acres) of new trees—a forest the size of Germany—by 2050.

The big problem: There isn’t enough water in these regions to sustain such ambitious reforestation efforts. As one expert notes:

“People crowded into the natural sand dunes and the Gobi to plant trees, which have caused a rapid decrease in soil moisture and the groundwater table. Actually, it will cause desertification [in some regions].”

The other problem: A lot of these were single tree species forests—which proved vulnerable to pests, and in the 90s a great number of them started to die. Plus this:

“Worse still, planting non-native trees in dry regions—where most of China’s forestation efforts are unfolding—not only leads to a poor survival rate but can also exacerbate water scarcity and damage ecosystems.”

OTOH: China has increased its forest cover from 12% to 22%—and remains a world leader in afforestation. And it has constantly changed its policies to respond to setbacks. The latest is a big move to create forests and green spaces within and around its cities. And its new plan calls for 85% of the dedicated land to be given over to “natural forestation.”

What’s the India angle?

We are pretty much in the same boat—and monster sandstorms in, say, Delhi may well lie in our near future. A reminder: back in 2018, dust-bearing winds from western India and the Thar desert blew across North India—which saw PM10 levels shoot up to 900 mg per cubic metre, way beyond emergency levels.

The situation: In 2014, then Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar admitted that a quarter of all land in India is degrading, and turning into desert. The exact figure as per a 2016 report: 29,32% or 96.40 million hectares area (mha). Rajasthan is #1 at 23 Mha, followed by Gujarat, Maharashtra and Jammu and Kashmir (13 Mha each), then Odisha and Andhra Pradesh (5 Mha each).

Speaking of Delhi: The Thar desert is steadily moving eastwards—toward Delhi, and the process is likely to be accelerated by Haryana’s big plans to 25,000 hectares of forest areas in the Aravalli hills for construction and mining activities. The hills have long been an important barrier preventing the spread of the desert—but now there are large gaps caused by deforestation. This is one big reason for unusual weather phenomena such as dust, hail and thunderstorms in the summer months.

Unlike China: We don’t have any plan to construct a big green wall—or anything else to stem the tide. Experts warn:

“[T]hings are looking very bad for India. The upper soil is being removed for construction and road building purposes and this is affecting our soil adversely. Earlier, soil loss was a slow process which took millions of years. Now, we have managed to change that in just a few decades, but the natural time for the soil to regain what it loses is still as long.”

The bottomline: China offers an object lesson for India. Unfortunately, we often choose to draw the wrong one.

Reading list

• The Guardian has a good overview of the sandstorm in China. 
• Carbon Daily Brief explains desertification and the link to climate change. 
• NPR and Earth Policy have everything you need to know about goats and desertification. 
• New York Times has a wonderful photo essay on its expanding deserts.
• National Geographic and Business Standard have the best reporting on the Great Green Wall.
• The Conversation looks at how China’s desertification is a problem for great swathes of Asia.
• Mongabay looks at desertification in India, while The Wire analyses how it has brought our water crisis into focus. 
• Down To Earth reports on Haryana’s plans for the Aravallis.
• Ozy looks at one community in Rajasthan that is building its own solution.