…and it’s not what Phil Collins was singing about.
Springtime in Korea means it’s time for our annual environmental gift from China:
No, that’s not haze or fog or even pollution.
It’s the Gobi Desert.
As it gets bigger and bigger, there’s less stuff growing there to hold the dust and sand on the ground. Strong winds come along and pick up the desert (or the tiniest bits of it) and blow it halfway around the world. In California it makes for spectacular sunsets. Here it makes for itchy eyes and scratchy lungs. Whee. It also makes for a fine coating of dust on every surface in the country – both inside and out. I’ve got to dust my apartment at least twice a week now, and if I take the motorcycle out for a spin, I need to spend some time dusting it off, lest I end up with brown pants. Now, I know this isn’t anything the Chinese cooked up to screw the rest of the world, but it really does suck. Right when the weather gets good enough to keep my windows open all day long, I can’t, else I’ll have to dust every day. (I absolutely hate to dust.) I could go off on some treehugger rant here about how the expanding desert is bad for all the people living near it and how the desertification of their arable lands is really bad, but that’s not the issue here. The issue is my personal comfort. (I suppose the comfort of everybody else breathing their desert, too – but this is really about me!)
So, if it’s not too much to ask, I’d like the Chinese government to get right on this. Divert a river or something. Maybe build another one of those cool walls – only this time make it to keep the dust in. See what you can do about this, okay? I’ll send you a “thank you” card or something.
^.^