From Reuters via the Boston Globe [link]:
A decade ago, Longben Cairao would have been in deep water. Today he stands on firm ground on Erlangjian, a sandspit named after a mythical sword in a classical Chinese tale that curves about 2-1/2 miles out into Lake Qinghai, China’s largest expanse of inland water.”This wasn’t here seven or eight years ago,” said Longben, 22, his feet digging into the stony sand. “The water levels just keep on dropping.”
Lake Qinghai, holy to ethnic Tibetans such as Longben, is shrinking, hit by declining rainfall and desertification partly caused by overgrazing. Some also blame global warming. Over the past three decades, water levels have dropped almost 13 feet and an area half the size of Singapore has been turned into dry land, according to state media.
Perched more than 10,000 feet above sea level, the salt water lake is more than 60 miles long, but the number of rivers feeding it has halved in the past 50 years and salinity has risen markedly.
For more on the drying up of western China’s lakes (and, hence, the country’s rivers) see last month’s report in Le Monde by Agnes Sinai.
Technorati Tags: China, global warming, Qinghai
