China’s forests multiply

China is now 25 percent forested, up from only 10 percent under forest cover in 1949.

In a decades-long effort to fight desertification in its vast western regions, and reduce sandstorms that reach as far as Beijing, China has just finished planting a 2,000-mile greenbelt around the Taklamakan, its largest desert.

The sandstorms apparently continue unabated, but the new forests have revived many ecosystems around the country and shifted precipitation patterns across the country – decreasing available water in the eastern monsoon zones and the arid regions to the west while increasing it in the Tibetan plateau.

The government is continuing to plant on a Chinese scale.

Sources: Reuters, Live Science