Join Earthwatch on world day to combat desertification.
How much do you know about desertification? This summer the United Nations and Earthwatch, the international environmental charity, would like to give you the opportunity to find out more.
Desertification occurs when patches of degraded land join over time to create uninhabitable desert like conditions that spread like a 'skin disease'. This process is the most serious environmental calamity facing people in arid climates around the world
To acknowledge the United Nations World Day to Combat Desertification on June 17th Earthwatch can offer you the opportunity to play an active role as a volunteer field researcher in this international effort. The Earthwatch scientific research project Inner Mongolia's Lost Water is sustained by the enthusiasm and hard work of Earthwatch volunteers and we need your help in 2004.
Earthwatch research, coordinated by Wei-Zu Gu (Nanjing Institute of Hydrology and Water Resources), has revealed that the aquifer (an underground bed or layer of earth that yields water) beneath the North China Plain, a region responsible for much of China's agricultural productivity, is at great risk of future desertification.
It is our objective to better understand both historical and current desertification, and the recovery processes. Research takes place in largely unpopulated landscapes, amid ancient ruins and giant sand mountains. Travelling by jeep or camel, volunteer researchers use basic yet effective techniques to collect water samples, and provide rough hand-drawn maps of the area. Working and living with local Mongolian herders, volunteers can expect to experience an incredible region that few outsiders have ever seen.
Wei-Zu Gu comments, 'We were once asked how Las Vegas could be established in the desert when a Mongolian city could not. The question was best answered by the Chinese proverb; a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. This project is that first step in understanding the past and future of desertification of this vast area.'
If Mongolia is beyond your reach then Earthwatch invites you to join us in London on June 17th at our open evening lecture 'Chihuahuan Desert Mountain Lions and Kenya's Grevy's Zebra', hosted by Dr John Laudre (Instituto de Ecologia) and Professor Dan Rubenstein (Prinston University).
Discover more about the endangered Mountain Lion (Puma) that inhabits the Chihuahuan Desert in Mexico. Once fertile grassland, this region is now a shrub desert after desertification took rapid effect in the last 150 years.
As past volunteer on the Pumas and Coyotes of Mexico recalls, 'The silence in the desert was a privilege. The three hour pursuits of mountain lion were exhausting and exhilarating. It was a rare treat to be in another world for three weeks.'
This lecture is free of charge, by ticket only. For more information and tickets contact the Earthwatch Events Office on +44 (0) 1865 311383 or email events@earthwatch.org.uk.
To find out more about joining the projects Inner Mongolia's Lost Water or Pumas and Coyotes of Mexico contact Earthwatch on (0)1865 318831 or visit www.earthwatch.org/europe.
For press information, images and interviews contact:
Zoe Gamble, Press Officer + 44 (0) 1865 318806/ zgamble@earthwatch.org.uk/
Editors Notes