Huge dust cloud threatens Asia

Independent, UK ^ | 26 January 2003 | Geoffrey Lean

[neutrino]

This is interesting in several ways, IMO. First, please recall that part of the reason Rome may have fallen under barbarian hordes was widespread famine. A present day famine would be widely destabilizing.

The second issue is that North Korea has already blackmailed the world for food; will China do otherwise?

Third interesting point is that China has a demographic imbalance (more young men than women).

More and more, I think our President is wise to avoid any fight in Korea...because being around China during such times might not be good at all.

[SerfsUp]

So will the US taxpayer end up sending loans to China to allow them to buy food?

[BfloGuy]

It threatens to drive up the price of food and greatly increase starvation worldwide, and could lead to tens of millions of desperate Chinese environmental refugees. "No country has ever faced a potential ecological catastrophe on the scale of the dust bowl now developing in China," says Lester Brown, president of the Earth Policy Institute, based in Washington. "Merely grasping its dimensions and consequences poses a serious analytical challenge."

SKY FALLS -- WOMEN AND MINORITIES HURT MOST

[Kevin Curry]

Viewed from Korea, these clouds make the entire sky in the direction of China (the Gobi Desert esp.) yellow. It's awesome to see.

[general_re]

The problem here is that the driving force behind this article is Lester Brown. Brown has been consistently predicting worldwide famine every year since 1974, and has been consistently wrong every year since 1974. I don't see any particular reason to believe that Lester's suddenly got his sh*t together after a 30 year losing streak ;)

[Diana Rose]

OK, so how are they going to make it our fault?

[ZOOKER]

So will the US taxpayer end up sending loans to China to allow them to buy food?

Probably.

Worst case: The US taxpayer pays the Chinese to buy food while simultaneously paying US farmers NOT TO GROW IT.

[buffyt]

"The clouds – which stretch for thousands of miles over Asia and have even reached across the Pacific to North America – are rising from a rapidly growing dust bowl in northern China that far outstrips the notorious one in the United States in the 1930s."

Our dust bowl in the 1930s was caused by all our gas guzzling SUVs right? HA

[twntaipan]

Question: Will the threat of air too thick to breathe force the IOC to consider moving the Olympics?

[neutrino]

So will the US taxpayer end up sending loans to China to allow them to buy food?

Probably. I don't like it one bit, but...probably we will. (Sigh)

[Paulus Invictus]

We saw the Gobi dust clouds here out West last year. The sky turned murky and breathing that stuff made people cough and wheeze. I kept wondering how many Chicom viruses and bacteria were in the dust.

[neutrino]

OK, so how are they going to make it our fault?

Well, isn't it obvious? We elected President Bush and a Republican Congress! (That's sarcasm, BTW).

Seriously, I would imagine that if a famine did develop there would be an effort by the news media and assorted leftists to make us feel guilty for enjoying a steak.

[razorback-bert]

[neutrino]

I don't see any particular reason to believe that Lester's suddenly got his sh*t together after a 30 year losing streak ;)

Ah, well. Even a broken clock is right a couple times per day, right? But you make a good point - such predictions have indeed been going on for a long time, and they've always been wrong.

[razorback-bert]

Don't look as bad as some West Texas storms, I have been in.

[Travis McGee]

Perhaps, but imagine the health consequences if it just stayed for months and years!

[Dec31,1999]

The dust bowl in the '30s was caused by poor cultivation techniques, which have since been corrected, as I understand. The Chinese should study it and prevent further desertification, if they know what's good for them.

[general_re]

You have to keep in mind where old Lester is coming from here. Famine is really a symptom of the real problem, overpopulation, as Lester sees it. In particular, Lester's very concerned with the overpopulation of all those brown and yellow people, if you catch my drift. And so the ultimate solution, as far as he's concerned, is population control - Lester thinks that China's one-child policy, and all that it entails, is just swell, for example.

I'm wary of Brown for two reasons - one, he's been wrong for thirty years running, as I've noted. But, two, I'm wary because his preferred solution is more or less to fly cropdusters carrying Ortho-Novum over Africa and Asia.... ;)

[Libertarianize the GOP]

http://www.freerepublic.com/perl/bump-list

[Restorer]

Beijing has always suffered from massive dust clouds blowing out of central Asia on the winter monsoon. Whether they are greater than "normal," I have no idea. But you can read about them in Marco Polo and the writings of every other person who's ever lived in Beijing.