Why China’s decades-long ambition to green the desert could run dry

Decades of tree planting have pushed back the Taklamakan's sands, but scientists warn the massive project is draining precious water and may be impossible to replicate. | Contesto: cronaca

Punti chiave

• Why China’s decades-long ambition to green the desert could run dry

Contesto

At the creeping frontier of China's Taklamakan Desert, a stark line of green now defines the battle against the sands. After decades of relentless, state-backed tree planting, rows of hardy vegetation are advancing into one of the world's most inhospitable deserts, a monumental effort scientists confirm has physically transformed the landscape. The visible success of this long-term greening project demonstrates a profound human capacity to alter even the most extreme environments, turning barren dunes into stabilized soil and nascent forest. This transformation is not merely cosmetic; it represents a core national ambition to secure agricultural land, reduce devastating sandstorms, and literally push back the desert's edge. The scale of the undertaking is difficult to overstate. For years, the initiative has involved the systematic planting of drought-resistant species like poplars and tamarisks across vast swathes of the desert's periphery, particularly in the Xinjiang region. The program is part of a broader, multi-decade strategy that includes other massive projects like the "Great Green Wall," aimed at halting desertification across northern China. The primary goals have been ecological security and economic stability, protecting infrastructure and oasis cities from being swallowed by the shifting sands. The emerging forest belt serves as a windbreak, slowing erosion and creating microclimates that can, in theory, support further development. However, this hard-won greenery comes at a steep and potentially unsustainable price. Researchers studying the project point to a critical and growing tension: the very water resources required to sustain this new forest are being severely depleted. The Taklamakan is an ultra-arid desert, and the trees survive not on rainfall, which is negligible, but on irrigation drawing from underground aquifers and distant river systems. Scientists warn that the long-term viability of the project is now in question, as the water consumption of millions of trees threatens to exhaust the region's fragile hydrological balance. The cost, therefore, is not just financial but environmental, trading one form of resource scarcity for...

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Categoria: cronaca