DEP Invoice or Financial Record, September 30, 2001

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"J Photographs by Erik EcWiolm/nie New York TWfe Sheep arid goats, watched over by a herder on horseback, search for grass on almost barren ground near Bayindeligar in central Inner Mongo^i 7 yindeligarJourna^l

Then Came the Locusts: A Chinese Region Reels .RUSSIA officials worry that their region is an acquired a cheap truck for the three- By ERIK ECKHOLM early victim of global warming, MONGOLIA hour drive through rutted pastures to BAYINDELIGAR, China - The brought on by rising concentrations the nearest market. situation here does not quite equal of carbon dioxide and other “green­ Now the truck sits broken. With Bayindetigar •Xlllnhof'i the horror of the 10 plagues of an­ house” gases. pastures nearly bald and no hay for Mlles : •....•A I cient Egypt — the pastures have not The case for a human-induced the frigid months ahead, the family 0 W ■■■■"•<

been overrun by frogs or fleas, at change in the weather cannot be plans to sell off most of its animals least not yet. proved, but the strange patterns here despite abysmal prices to try to save But after three years of calamities in recent years are consistent with INNER MONGOLIA breeding stock — and its future. Including drought, an earthquake, a scientific models of global warming, “Can it be that nature is chang­ killer blizzard, and even a plague of international experts say. If the ing?” said Ms. Jibutslma, who, like CHINA locusts that ate the grasslands clean, greenhouse theory is correct, the many Mongolians, uses a single the sheep and cattle herders of Inner woes of Inner Mongolian herders name. “Maybe the heavens are dis­

I give a taste of broader social and en­ Hong Mongolia are bewildered. They look turbed,” she added, pointing to the Kong to the coming winter with dread. vironmental stresses to come. barren hills. ^ANI -VJ “I don’t understand what's hap­ The troubles started in the sum­ pening,” said Jibutsima,78, an eth­ Generations of Ms. Jibutsima’s mer of 1999, when the always-mea- The New York Times nic Mongolian woman who, like hun­ family have tended livestock on ger rains nearly disappeared and an Natural disasters have buffeted dreds of thousands of others in this these same prairies. They were no­ earthquake destroyed many homes. mads until the early 198O’s, when Bayindeligar in Inner Mongolia. part of northern China, sees her life In 2000, the rains failed again. they settled within the thousand By last fall the grasses were spotty falling apart. acres of range land that they, like would scrounge from dormant pas­ While a surge in herd sizes during at best and the livestock thinner than a decade of good weather and boom­ many other local families, were allo­ usual a.s winter approached. Many tures. ing demand for meat weakened the cated by the government. families went deep into debt buying Then came the blizzard. For 72 region’s pastures, the immediate cri- In the 199O’s, with the demand for hay from other regions to supple­ hours, starting last December, in an ; sis was set off by an extraordinary mutton soaring and the rains good, ment whatever grass the animals event without known precedent here, j sequence of natural disasters. Local she and her sons saved enough to buy y-T—' z— ZA I a savage mix of snow and fine sand a motorbike for herding. They even Ny / 9'35'C// ^h^le^hrough the air, wowing so