World's largest solar power plant launched in China

 

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Rare snow turns Taklimakan Desert into winter wonderland

 

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Considérée comme morte, la mer d'Aral semble ressuscitée en Asie centrale

Pendant de longues années, la mer d'Aral, située en Asie centrale, à cheval entre le Kazakhstan et l'Ouzbékistan, s'est évaporée en raison des chantiers de l'ancienne URSS. Pour produire du coton en masse, le bloc soviétique avait en effet détourné les fleuves. Aujourd’hui, la mer d’Aral semble renaître.

Powered by Sun, Device Pulls Water from Dry Air

Researchers created the first water harvester that uses only ambient sunlight.

Earthquake shakes California desert area (104 km NE of San Diego, local time: 01:04)

A moderate earthquake hit the Palm Springs area early Friday and was felt across parts of Southern California, but there were no immediate reports of damage.

Enormous, Mysterious Sea Found Under China Desert

Scientists have discovered a huge underground waterbody in China’s northwest Xinjiang province, Discovery website reported.

Another Chinese firm punished for polluting desert

A chemical factory and its legal representative in northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region have been punished for dumping untreated waste in the Tengger Desert.

A line in the sand: Workers plant a web of shrubs in the desert to halt the advancing of sand dunes

Xinjiang, in Northwest China, is home to the country's biggest deserts. Fighting desertification is a constant for cities deep in the region, to avoid the fate of being buried like the ancient Loulan civilization more than 1,600 years ago.

The town of Qiemo, in the middle of the Taklimakan Desert, China's largest, has been fighting against the sand dunes pushing towards it. On the other side of the Qarqan River, the sand dunes are only two kilometers away at the nearest point. Three times in the town's history, the river running through it was diverted by shifting desert sands................the article and more images to...(Global Times)
23/10/14

In fight against hunger, UN launches initiative targeting threat of desertification

 UN, 22 October 2014 – The growing menace of desertification poses a distinct threat to the world’s agriculture and eco-systems, the United Nations agriculture agency warned today, as it announced a new initiative aimed at curbing the spread of land degradation and building resilience to climate change.

The programme, named Action Against Desertification and launched by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in partnership with the European Union and the African, Caribbean, and Pacific Group of States (ACP), will devote some €41million to bolstering sustainable land management across the world’s most vulnerable areas in an effort to fight hunger and poverty.

NASA Photographs Show Eastern Basin of Aral Sea Totally Dried

New NASA photographs taken by satellite show Central Asia' once-vibrant Aral Sea shrinking to levels possibly not seen in centuries.
The images taken in August by the Terra satellite show that the sea's eastern basin, on the border of Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, completely empty, the first time in modern times, said Philip Micklin, a well-known geographer and professor emeritus of Western Michigan University and an Aral Sea expert.

UN opens high-level meeting on combating desertification.

WINDHOEK, Sept. 23 (Xinhua) -- Government ministers and other heads of delegation from 195 parties to a UN special convention on fighting expanding deserts across the globe started on Monday a two-day meeting here.

The high-level gathering begins as the 11th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP11) to the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), which opened in the Namibian capital on Sept. 16, went into its second week. The participants will discuss in the form of three round tables on topics including achieving a land degradation neutral world, promoting good practices in implementing the convention, and scaling up investments in avoiding land degradation and restoring degraded land.