Tibet plateau as clean as North Pole: report
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E-mail Xinhua, November 18, 2015
Ice core records showed that temperatures in the region rose the most in the 20th century. According to climate change models, the next 100 years may see the plateau warming by 4 degrees Celsius.
Precipitation showed an overall rise from 1960 to 2012 of 2.2 percent every ten years, but changes in precipitation were unevenly distributed. Precipitation in the north increased, while that in the south declined.
The CAS institute describes the Tibetan plateau in its report as the areas mainly in southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region, with an average altitude of over 4,500 meters.
Report proposes ecological protection in Changtang of Tibetan plateau
An environmental evaluation report on the Tibetan plateau called for building an ecological civilization model area in Changtang, a habitat for wild animals including Tibetan antelopes and yaks.
The report on environmental change was published Wednesday by the Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research under the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
It said the Changtang area, the nation's highest vulnerable environment, is facing risks including severe thawing of glacier and frozen ground against the backdrop of global warming.
Vegetation degradation and desertification are also at play, with various environmental factors in fragile balance.
According to the report, human activities including increased tourism and overgrazing are also posing threats.
Since the area is important to the environmental change of East Asia and South Asia, the report proposes that a model of green development and enhanced environmental protection should be adopted for the area.
Mines closed, rational mining promoted in Tibet
China has closed 40 mining companies which failed to meet environmental standards in Tibet since 2010, a national research institute said in a report on Wednesday.
"Mineral resources exploration in Tibet only involves survey, mining and dressing, but not smelting," said the report on environment change on the Tibetan plateau organized by the Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS).
"Prominent problems" propped up in the past decades, however, which had negatively impacted environment, the report said, adding that it was because the sparsely-populated areas with high altitudes and poor transportation conditions had made environmental monitoring very difficult.
Aiming to protect the fragile ecological environment of the Tibetan plateau, the Tibet autonomous regional government banned mining of gold dust on Jan. 1, 2006, or exploitation of iron sand on Jan. 1, 2008.
The government started to restore environment and renovate mines with prominent problems from 2003.
Fifty-six renovation projects had been carried out by 2010, in areas with a total size of 77.11 square kilometers.
Tibet has 102 varieties of underground minerals.
The regional government has tightened controls on exploration of mining resources. By 2010, the areas with registered mining rights have covered 749.62 square kilometers, less than 0.1 percent of total areas of the autonomous region.
The CAS institute describes the Tibetan plateau in its report as the areas mainly in southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region, with an average altitude of over 4,500 meters.
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