The juxtaposition of an ancient irrigation system with a recently built dam exposes greater dangers and harsher environmental impacts caused by modern systems of controlling water.
The surface level of China's largest saltwater lake sits 13 meters lower than it did a century ago.
The surface level of China's largest saltwater lake sits 13 meters lower than it did a century ago.
Since the end of World War II, 50 percent of the worlds mangroves have been destroyed. In Zhanjiang, China, students learn to protect them.
Recent flooding at Dongting Lake means little in the wake of 70 years of drought which have caused the lake's volume to decrease by 50 percent.
China's endangered alligator species sees a resurgence through captive breeding, begging the question of whether the population's natural habitat remains large enough to sustain its growth.
Habitat degradation pushes the Yangtze alligator dangerously close to extinction.
China's Xixi wetlands provide a popular tourist destination as well as a reminder that we are all downstream.
When I first started to research the idea of reporting on wetlands in China, the initial thing that I noticed was that there were some rather shocking statistics associated with the issue.
Photographer Sean Gallagher's 12-page photo-essay 'China's Growing Sands' is featured in the April 2010 edition of National Geographic China. The work focuses on the subject of environmental crisis of desertification and its effects on northern China.
Read the full article at National Geographic Magazine China.
Beijing, China — China's poverty-stricken northwest is swathed in sand. The deserts are creeping over ever larger areas, in part because of weather changes linked to climate change. Sean Gallagher a young British photographer travelled to Ningxia to document China's growing sands.
"You can smell a sandstorm.
As I woke this morning, my throat was drier than normal and the smell of dust and sand had crept into my room whilst I was sleeping.
I opened my curtains expecting to see the Yellow River out of my window but all I could see was a haze of yellow light."
Fighting the war against sand - Outlook talks to the photojournalist who has travelled across the spreading deserts of China where more and more people are becoming environmental refugees - it's now estimated that almost one fifth of China's land area is now desert.
Gallagher's interview begins at 16:56.
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