Hours before the UN climate talks end, a warning from China’s top scientific body – the twin influences of human activities and climate change are turning much of the Tibetan plateau into a desert.
The damage is not only transforming grasslands and wetlands into sand and rock where nothing can grow. The plateau is also the source of Asia’s major rivers, on whose water about 1.4 billion people depend.
More than 100 scientists have contributed to a report – published by the Chinese Academy of Sciences – that discloses the rate of the desertification process and its spread.
he report, which appears on the website of thethirdpole newsletter, says the plateau is already warming twice as fast as the global average.