Latest comments posted about An official on the roof of the world on ChinaDialogue en-gb http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/show/single/en/2720-An-official-on-the-roof-of-the-world http://staging.chinadialogue.net/images/cdlogo.gif http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/show/single/en/2720-An-official-on-the-roof-of-the-world About this: Dealing with global climate change – what should people do? One must develop an energy saving, environmentally friendly model of society, and give it a prime position in the strategic development of industrialisation and modernisation, realising it in each unit and every family. To greatly raise society’s consciousness and ability to participate, building a good environment in which the whole population can deal with climate change .…thoroughly carry out the reduction of energy usage and emission by the whole population, resolutely fighting for energy reduction and emission (People’s Daily newspaper dated 29 June 2008). By raising the public’s scientific knowledge in questions of climate change, mobilising the whole society to deal with climate change, it becomes a moving force for the implementation of the ‘National Programme’. According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Committee report in November 2006, the livestock farming industry accounted for 18% of greenhouse gas emission, and has already exceeded that from the transportation industry, including cars, aeroplanes, trains and ships etc. Furthermore, the livestock farming industry consumed one third of the world’s cereal and 90% of soya. It occupied 70% of farming land use. 80% of the world’s forest felling is connected with livestock farming. 64% of emitted ammonia which leads to acid rain came from the livestock farming industry. This suggests that a carnivorous person consumes what is equivalent to a large share of the environment – please take heed. Translated by Somui Cheung Mon, 16 Feb 2009 10:26:08 +0000 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/2720#comment-8344 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/2720#comment-8344 I agree with comment 4. In fact the degradation of the grasslands varies greatly -- in some places it is not degraded. And there is some scientific debate about what is the best response to degradation. There is some interesting new work that suggests that grazing helps the grasslands to be more resilient so taking yak herds off the grasslands might be the wrong policy. Herders have kept the ecological balance for generations by using traditional methods. Now they find this difficult because of fencing and other restrictions. Surely it is best to trust the people with a proven track record of conservation, rather than officials who have been wrong in the past about the best policies. Wed, 04 Feb 2009 13:11:54 +0000 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/2720#comment-8280 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/2720#comment-8280 Therefore, I believe we should not take stop-gap measures to handle the possible degradation of grasslands in northern Tibet, for we can do little in local areas to cure the grassland degradation caused by climate change (the only choice is to get the countries of huge greenhouse gas emissions to cut emissions through publicity). What we could do there is to improve the fundamental education and vocational education of local herdsmen in order to help them get jobs in other trades, such as local services including automobile repair and catering. This would not only relieve the stress to the grasslands brought by population growth, but also help pass on the traditional nomadic culture in northern Tibet to generations, because some of the herdsmen are doing animal husbandry while others doing other work. As a result, spending the funds that are now used to improve the eco-environment of the grasslands on fundamental and vocational education would be a better choice than stop-gap measures in terms of economic effects, social effects, cultural effects and ecological effects in the long run. (Translated by Xiaoyu Guan) Tue, 03 Feb 2009 12:45:08 +0000 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/2720#comment-8271 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/2720#comment-8271 I would like discuss with anyone in the following aspects: firstly, the conclusion that grasslands has degraded needs to be confirmed further if only using satellite remote sensing monitoring to measure because in this article author didn’t make any comparison between the new measurement and baseline. Therefore I think whether degradation of grasslands is recently happened or happened a long time ago, the question only can be answered by local herdsmen. Actually satellite remote sensing monitoring should be combined with herdsmen’s experiences and their opinions. Secondly, it should be very cautious when we measure the carrying capacity of grasslands before we have a clear knowledge about whether grasslands in northern Tibet is an equilibrium system or not. Thirdly, in the article he suggested that “pipe water from the head-waters of Nujiang and adopt sprinkling irrigation, combined with sowing again, fertilizing and eradicating rats” so as to improve the status quo of grasslands. Its feasibility should be investigated further and the value to popularize is still an uncertainty. Because investment of irrigation and fertilization will be huge in dry zone and will affect groundwater level in neighboring areas and interrupt the natural growth mechanism of pastures as well. In the long run, it is likely to result in unintended negative consequences in ecology. Mon, 02 Feb 2009 17:32:55 +0000 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/2720#comment-8265 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/2720#comment-8265 I couldn’t agree with Comment #4 more. We should do environmental protection work not only with passion but also with modest and prudent attitude, by doing scientific analysis and careful verification in accordance with local experience. Good intentions could bring bad results. Although people who do it are acting from good motives, the damage they cause could be very serious(Translated by Xiaoyu Guan). Tue, 03 Feb 2009 06:24:43 +0000 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/2720#comment-8269 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/2720#comment-8269 I agree with Comment No.2 in the fact that the rapid worsening of the environment on the Tibetan plateau is indeed horrifying. As a rookie in environment issues, I am very concerned with the issue of whether we can find an effective way to stop this worsening. If we can't, does that mean that one day we will face a climate change that is nationwide or even worldwide? (Translated by Shen Zheng) Sun, 01 Feb 2009 11:15:05 +0000 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/2720#comment-8257 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/2720#comment-8257 We are all aware of the significance of the Tibetan plateau to the global climate as "the third pole". It has brought many concerns that it is being so quickly and badly damaged. I think the central government should pay more attention to the problem, investigate, analyse and finally keep the changes of the Tibetan plateau under control. Otherwise, the consequences will be unthinkable.(Translated by Shen Zheng) Sun, 01 Feb 2009 10:59:09 +0000 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/2720#comment-8256 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/2720#comment-8256 I’m very glad to see this official who is paying attention to climate changes and practically working for that. Lots of officials care only about the projects which can bring brilliant political achievements, but ignore those long-term benefits that our country really needs. And in most of the places people can’t feel exactly the big impact of climate changes on our productions and livings as people from the northern Tibetan plateau. Maybe that’s why people are not really paying attention to this. I sincerely hope there will be more officials like Wandrak as well as more practical actions from government. (This Comment was translated by Fangfang CHEN) Sun, 01 Feb 2009 10:52:54 +0000 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/2720#comment-8255 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/2720#comment-8255