Donate NowThe Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, in association with the Climate Institute, presents:
Heat of the Moment: Desertification in China
Beijing-based photojournalist Sean Gallagher presents images from his travels on the "desertification train" across China.
Followed by a Q & A and discussion on climate change policy, moderated by policy analyst Zhimin Mao
Friday, October 30
10:00 a.m. - Noon
The Heinz Center
900 17th St. NW, Suite 700
(17th and "Eye" Streets NW)
Seating limited. RSVP requested
Desertification is one of the most important environmental challenges facing the world today. However, it is arguably the most under-reported. Desertification is the gradual transformation of arable and habitable land into desert, usually caused by climate change and/or the improper use of land. Each year, desertification and drought account for $42 billion loss in food production. In China, nearly 20% of land area is desert.
As a result of a combination of poor farming practices, drought and increased demand for groundwater, desertification has become arguably China's most important environmental challenge. As the effects of increasing desertification appear, farmers are forced to abandon their land, levels of rural poverty rise and the intensity of sandstorms, which batter northern and western China each year, continue to intensify.
By traveling from Beijing on China's "desertification train," the K117-T69-K886 route that bisects China's major northern deserts, photojournalist Sean Gallagher reports on the various implications of desertification on people's lives across the breadth of China.
Sean Gallagher specializes in reporting social and environmental issues in Asia, with specific emphasis on China. His work has been published internationally, in print and online, in leading publications, and exhibited worldwide. His Pulitzer Center-supported Desertification in China project was a finalist in the prestigious International Photography Awards.
Zhimin Mao currently works as an Energy and Climate Policy Analyst at the University Corporation of Atmospheric Research (UCAR) in collaboration with the Heinz Center where she focuses her work on the development of US-China energy and climate change policy. She also has a deep interest in China's environmental pollution issues.