BEIJING (AP) – The Chinese capital and a wide swath of the north of the country were engulfed on Monday in the worst sandstorm of the decade, forcing the cancellation of hundreds of flights.
The skyscrapers of central Beijing seemed to fall out of sight between the dust and the sand. Traffic was reduced and more than 400 flights from the capital’s two main airports were canceled amid strong winds and poor visibility.
The National Meteorological Center said Monday’s storm had developed in the Gobi Desert in the Inner Mongolia region, where schools had been advised to close and a bus service was added to reduce exposure. of residents in harsh conditions.
These storms used to occur regularly in the spring, as sand from the western deserts blew eastward, affecting areas as far north as Japan.
Massive planting of trees and shrubs in fragile areas has reduced the effects in other parts of the country in recent years, but the expansion of cities and industries, along with tape mining and overgrazing, have exerted a constant pressure on the environment throughout China. With its mixture of desert steppes and grasses, Inner Mongolia is particularly prone to extreme weather resulting from resource exploitation.
Like COVID-19, which is believed to have spread to bats and other wildlife, sandstorms are reminiscent of the need to respect nature, said Zhou Jinfeng, secretary general of the China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation. .
“Along with the pandemic, this is another great lesson we need to take and change our behavior,” Zhou said.
The National Meteorological Center predicted that the sand and dust would affect 12 provinces and regions from Xinjiang in the northwest to Heilongjiang in the northeast and the coastal port city of Tianjin.
“This is the most intense sandstorm weather our country has seen in ten years, in addition to covering the wider area,” the center said in a post on its website.
It was unclear whether the storm was related to a recent general decline in air quality despite efforts to end Beijing’s smoky smoke.
The ruling Communist Party has pledged to reduce carbon emissions per unit of economic production by 18% over the next five years. Environmentalists say China needs to do more to reduce its dependence on coal, making it the world’s largest emitter of climate-changing gases.