Sandstorms hit China, threaten Green Olympics dream

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http://www.enn.com/news/wire-stories/2002/03/03212002/reu_46725.asp

 

Sandstorms hit China, threaten Green Olympics dream

 

Thursday, March 21, 2002

By Jonathan Ansfield, Reuters

 

BEIJING — Sandstorms enveloped Beijing in an

apocalyptic orange sky on Wednesday, casting a pall of

doubt over whether the host of the 2008 Olympics can

fight off the onslaught of choking desertification.

The skies of the famously polluted Chinese capital,

which pinned its winning pitch for the games on the

concept of a " Green Olympics, " turned from gray to

yellow to orange.

 

Pedestrians wearing masks fled for shelter as traffic

stalled in the swirling, crunchy winds. State radio

said visibility levels had dipped as low as 100 meters

(yards). " It's awful, I can't breathe, " said Rui

Chunyuan, 23, a cargo service worker in Beijing. " We

hope that by 2008, the government will do its best to

reduce or wipe out the sandstorms, " she added.

 

In Tianjin, some 100 km (60 miles) away from Beijing,

state radio said the streets had emptied as a muddy

drizzle washed the heavens yellow and red. State news

agency Xinhua described the storm as the worst to hit

northern China in a decade.

 

Flower seller Wang Yonghong, her spring tulips covered

in dust, said, " We can't imagine what it would look

like at the 2008 Olympics if things carry on this

way. "

 

Annual spring winds gusting from the increasingly

desertlike northwest have troubled Beijing for the

last 10 years. In addition, meteorologists blame

unusually light winter snowfalls for the greater

frequency of sandstorms in China this year.

 

AIRPORT OPEN

 

State media reported disruptions to air and ground

transportation in Inner Mongolia and much of northern

China due to winds of up to 60 kmph (40 mph).

Beijing's international airport and major highways

remained open despite winds of up to 40 kmph (25 mph).

" The situation is normal, very normal, " said an

airport official.

 

To combat the storms, the State Council, China's

cabinet, had approved a 10-year reforestation project

providing a protective green belt around Beijing and

Tianjin, the Communist Party–run People's Daily said

on Wednesday. Desert covers some 27.3 percent of China

and spreads each year by 2,460 square km (950 square

miles), the paper said last year. It said

desertification costs China 54 billion yuan (US$6.52

billion) annually.

 

More than half the 32 sandstorms that blanketed

northern China last year came from Mongolia and Inner

Mongolia, the official China Daily said in January.

The government had spent 3 billion yuan ($362 million)

on ecological protection projects in Inner Mongolia to

prevent sandstorms forming there, Xinhua said.

 

Copyright 2002, Reuters

 

 

 

 

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