Environmental and Ecological Deterioration: Major Natural Disasters Occurred in the Recent Months in China (IV)

China Times: The ecological environments are deteriorating in the headstream areas of the three big rivers in Mainland China (08/20/2000)

(Mainland News Center, Taipei) The officials of Qinghai province in China disclosed during an interview that the ecological environment in the headstream areas of the three big rivers in China, the Changjiang River, the Yellow River and the Lanchang River are still continuously deteriorating due to natural factors as well as human spoiling. This threatens the safety of the areas of the middle and lower reaches of these rivers.

The official Xinhua News Agency of China quoted Mu Dongsheng, an official of Qinghai province, on Saturday as saying that in the recent years, in the headstream areas of the three big rivers, the Changjiang River, the Yellow River and the Lanchang River, the lakes are diminishing, wetlands are degenerating and the rates of flow are decreasing. In Maduo County, which is always eulogized as "the county of thousand lakes", the water levels of numerous lakes are dropping, some of the lakes even dried up. The vegetation of marshy low-wet meadow is turning into plateau xerophytes. Acres of wetlands are diminishing, drying and exposed. Between the two big freshwater lakes, Erlin Lake and Zalin Lake in the headwaters of the Yellow River, for the first time since 1996, the river has dried up. In these headstream areas, glaciers are receding, snow lines are raising and the supply of water resources decreasing evidently.

The report says that the grasslands in the headstream areas of the three big rivers have seriously degraded and are plagued by rats and insects. The statistics showed that the area of the degraded or desertified grasslands has totaled over 10 million hectares, which is 53% of the area of all the usable grasslands in Qinghai province. The grass generating capability evidently decreased equal to 28% of all the usable grasslands, rats plague 5.5 million hectares of the grasslands. Meanwhile, the desertification process is speeding up. According to the statistics, the desertified area is more than 2.5 million hectares. The land desertification and grasslands degradation are still speeding up. These desertified lands are currently conveying over 100 million tons of mud and sands each year into the Changjiang River and the Yellow River. The report also said that these areas were once the most biologically diversified plateau areas, however, due to the deterioration of the ecological environments and human spoiling, the species and quantities of life forms were quickly reduced.

Mu Dongsheng pointed out that this deteriorating trend of the ecological environments in the headstream areas of the three big rivers not only affects the sustaining developments of the economy and society of these areas, but also threatens the safety of the industrial, agricultural production as well as the peoples lives in the middle and lower reaches of these three big rivers.

World Journal: Melting of the ice in North Pole confirmed the Global Warming; Experts are very surprised by the first appearance of a mile-wide ice-free ocean area in 50 million year in the Arctic Ocean 8/19/2000

---

(Wrap-up report, World Journal, 8/19/2000) Recent visitors of the North Pole said on August 18th that the thick layer of ice covering the Arctic Ocean for millions of years has been melted down.

At least for now, in the North Pole, there has been an ice-free ocean area about one mile wide. Mankind perhaps has never seen this scene and it proves furthermore that maybe the Global Warming is real and the global weather has been affected.

Scientists believe that the last time the North Pole was covered by ocean water was more than 50 million years ago.

The Curator of the Comparative Zoology Museum of Harvard University, oceanologist McCarthy said that it has not been thought about that there will be ice-free ocean area in North Pole. McCarthy was one of the members of a weather-changing studying group funded by the United Nations.

Earlier this month, McCarthy was the speechmaker of the North Pole tour program of a Russian icebreaker "Yamal". He recalled that in a similar North Pole tour six years ago, the icebreaker had to make an arduous effort to go through an icecap about 2 to 3 meters thick. This time the ice was so thin that the sunlight could penetrate through and maintain the life of planktons below the ice. McCarthy related that the Russian captain of the icebreaker who had navigated the North Pole ten times in recent years told him that he had never come across any ice-free water area at the North Pole before.

During the last century, the average temperature of the earth's surface has increased by about one-Fahrenheit degree. In its last 25 years, the warming process has sped up. The current global temperature is only 5 to 9 Fahrenheit degrees higher than that of last ice age 18 to 20 thousand years ago. Thus, the temperature increase of last century is rather significant comparatively. Is it a natural fluctuation, or is it caused by the releasing of the Greenhouse gases into the atmosphere by the modern industrial society? Scientists and decision-makers are still debating on this.