China's Loess Plateau

Hope in a changing climate

A short introduction to this album.

Academic introduction to the 'Hope in a changing climate' film

Leading academics Joe Smith and Vince Gauci discuss some of the key issues highlighted in the film.

China's Loess Plateau

Loess is a thin soil. When it is dry it is whisked up into great sand storms, which blight Beijing and other cities. As part of the restoration project farmers were paid to keep their cattle off the hillsides. The results are astounding, the farmers now grow high value cash crops and the air is cleaner.

Ethiopia's re-vegetation

The land of Tigrai a village in Ethiopia has been degraded by centuries of subsistence farming. Eroded gulley's of dry mud show the force of floods that poured down the hillside when the rain came. Once the floods had gone, drought followed. Now after five years these once barren gulley's are green and rich with vegetation.

Rwanda's environmental restoration

Rwanda is the watershed for the White Nile and Congo river, but until now the rain water ran straight off the hillsides, eroding soil and famine became a possibility. Because the government intervened early, little serious erosion occurred, the hydro-electric dams are filling up and the hillside is revegetated.