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3,000-KM Green Belt: China Completes 46-Year Campaign to Encircle its Largest Desert With Trees
AsiaOne ^

Posted on 12/04/2024 2:21:19 PM PST by nickcarraway

China has finished a 46-year campaign to encircle its largest desert with trees, part of national efforts to end desertification and curb the sandstorms that plague parts of the country during the spring, state media reported on Friday (Nov 29).

A "green belt" of about 3,000 km around the Taklamakan was completed on Thursday in the northwestern region of Xinjiang, after workers planted the final 100 metres of trees on the desert's southern edge, the Communist Party-run People's Daily said.

Efforts to enclose the desert with trees began in 1978 with the launch of China's "Three-North Shelterbelt" project, colloquially known as the Great Green Wall.

More than 30 million hectares (116,000 square miles) of trees have been planted.

Tree planting in the arid northwest has helped bring China's total forest coverage above 25 per cent by the end of last year, up from around 10 per cent in 1949.

Forest coverage in Xinjiang alone has risen from one per cent to five per cent in the last 40 years, the People's Daily said.

The shelterbelt project has involved decades of experimentation with different tree and plant species to determine which is the hardiest.

Critics say that survival rates have often been low, and it has been ineffective in reducing sandstorms, which routinely reach the capital Beijing.


TOPICS: China; Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: arborday; china; desert; trees

1 posted on 12/04/2024 2:21:19 PM PST by nickcarraway
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To: nickcarraway

Problem is .Let of the trees are either Palm trees or Weeping Willows


2 posted on 12/04/2024 2:24:34 PM PST by shadeaud (God gave us the free will and intelligence to choose right from wrong. Use it or lose it!D)
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To: nickcarraway

Of course they have.

Just like there’s no poverty or homeless and everyone has religious freedom and right to free speech.


3 posted on 12/04/2024 2:29:18 PM PST by ifinnegan (Democrats kill babies and harvest their organs to sell)
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To: nickcarraway

Very cool.
My Chinese friend / coworker brought his new wife to visit in the Fall. The last night before they left he asked that I have a bonfire as his wife had never seen one in China.
He said it wasn’t allowed because the lack of trees / firewood in the country.
🔥
I was my pleasure to oblige.


4 posted on 12/04/2024 2:33:04 PM PST by MotorCityBuck (Keep the change, you are filthy animal! )
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To: nickcarraway

bkmk


5 posted on 12/04/2024 2:37:02 PM PST by sauropod ("You didn't take a country. You only won a football game!" - Dan Dakich Ne supra crepidam)
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To: nickcarraway

Plant trees in the desert...why has no one thought of this before?


6 posted on 12/04/2024 2:47:10 PM PST by bigbob (Yes. We ARE going back!)
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To: shadeaud

The main problem early on was the chicoms went cheep on irrigation. And the reported poor survival rate of the trees indicates someone is still stealing the water pipes?


7 posted on 12/04/2024 2:48:38 PM PST by OldWarBaby
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To: bigbob

The original plan was to plant 500 million trees in the Gobi. There never said where they were going to get the trees?


8 posted on 12/04/2024 2:51:25 PM PST by OldWarBaby
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To: OldWarBaby

Unfortunately they were all Charlie Brown Christmas trees.


9 posted on 12/04/2024 3:08:25 PM PST by HombreSecreto (The life of a repo man is always intense)
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To: bigbob

Where did you get that idea?


10 posted on 12/04/2024 3:18:03 PM PST by TexasGator ('/1./')
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To: nickcarraway

I’ve seen videos of corruption in China, where dying trees and bushes are spray-painted green before officials come to check on progress of planting trees. The locals take the federal money for having planted “healthy” trees, although the trees are dead or almost dead.


11 posted on 12/04/2024 3:51:27 PM PST by roadcat ( )
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To: nickcarraway

Started two years after Mao was gone. Are they still killing any sparrows that dare next in the trees?


12 posted on 12/04/2024 4:29:41 PM PST by Larry Lucido (Donate! Don't just post clickbait!)
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To: Larry Lucido

—” Are they still killing any sparrows that dare next in the trees?”

Without the sparrows, they had a nice crop of locusts to fry up!


13 posted on 12/04/2024 5:00:38 PM PST by DUMBGRUNT ( "The enemy has overrun us. We are blowing up everything. Vive la France!"Dien Bien Phu last message)
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To: bigbob

SOME IGNORANCE CANNOT BE EXCEEDED


14 posted on 12/04/2024 5:02:17 PM PST by ridesthemiles (not giving up on TRUMP---EVER)
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To: MotorCityBuck

#4 In England they use to have many more trees but they cut them down for firewood and building ships.
I do not know why they have not planted many more trees since. I blame the squirrels...

Google search: England they use to have many more trees

History
In 1086, legend says that England’s forests covered 15% of the land. However, by 1905, that number had dropped to 5.2%.
Current state
Today, only 10% of England is covered in woodland, and 12.8% if you include street trees and lone trees. This is well below the EU average of 38%.

Below shows % by country. The USA is 34%.

Reality Check: Are millions of trees being planted?
25 October 2017
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-41551296

I imagine one day England will have statutes like this.
https://www.blacktomato.com/us/inspirations/charles-schwab-life-lessons-a-lost-culture-on-easter-island/

These 3 look like Jeremy Clarkson and James May and little Richard Hammond 😁
https://www.cntraveler.com/story/easter-island-sets-tourist-limit


15 posted on 12/05/2024 2:40:33 PM PST by minnesota_bound (Need more money to buy everything now)
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To: nickcarraway
No. They didn't.

China paints things green so it looks like there are trees there when there are not.

Why? Because those stupid foreign devils will give us money to plant trees.

Everything out of China is fake, a lie or poison.

Prove me wrong.

16 posted on 12/05/2024 2:46:08 PM PST by Harmless Teddy Bear ( Not my circus. Not my monkeys. But I can pick out the clowns at 100 yards.)
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To: minnesota_bound

Thanks for the links, very interesting.


17 posted on 12/05/2024 3:24:49 PM PST by MotorCityBuck (Keep the change, you are filthy animal! )
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To: minnesota_bound
So they have doubled the amount of woodland in a century.

Sounds like they are actually doing things right.

18 posted on 12/05/2024 4:49:45 PM PST by Harmless Teddy Bear ( Not my circus. Not my monkeys. But I can pick out the clowns at 100 yards.)
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