Despite China's best efforts, `the sand just keeps on coming'

[dArKeR]

AP , HAN'ERIQ TOWENHAN'ERIQ, CHINA
Tuesday, May 04, 2004,Page 9

Children scramble up a hill in bare feet, leaving their village behind and kicking up dust clouds. Licking cracked lips, they squint at the only ocean they have ever known -- the undulating sand creeping silently toward their doors.

It would be nice to pretend there was lush vegetation here once, but there hasn't been any in human memory. Han'eriq Towenhan'eriq is part of the parched expanse that is Xinjiang in China's far northwest. And lately, the desert has been making its move.

""We're used to this. It's just part of us, said Memetiming Weili, one of several laborers in the tiny community. "But the sand just keeps on coming."

For hundreds of wood-and-earthen villages across Xinjiang, connected by gargantuan valleys where mountains of sand loom 30m high, the story is the same: The desert is spreading, and the government is waging an increasingly vigorous fight to halt it.

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/edit/archives/2004/05/04/2003154102

[Old and In the Way]

1. Up here at our State University in Maine, we have 2 big

schools: Paper making and agricultural technology.

I've often wondered why we wouldn't leverage the combined technologies and create paper with seeds and fertilizer. Take the rolls and spread them and stake them to the ground. With the right fertilizer and seeds tailored for the environment, I'd think one could start to make a small dent on the desertification of the Earth. I understand the world loses land mass = to the state of Maine every year.