Surviving in Isolation, Where the Steppe Has Turned to Sand

Climate change is real, and it has been for millions of years. The pace is likely accelerating, but it's very questionable if we have the ability to make changes that will somehow stop climate change like desertification of the steppes of central Asia. Climate change is like a religion today. It cannot be questioned. It cannot be ridiculed. It cannot be constructively challenged and in such an environment, productive answers are very unlikely to be found. This post is likely not even going to get published because of it.

David Wallace William’s detailed reporting of climate change in his recent book entitled “The Uninhabitable Earth-Life After Warming” is a sobering but riveting read. You will learn a lot.

Greg Gianforte as the most shortsighted governor in 2020, is going to turn Montana into another desert. They are killing all but 15 breeding pairs of Montana wolves which will lead to overgrazing and desertification. What is it that leads men to kill their own planet? How are we different from wild animals who cannot control their breeding?

We’ve been seeing numerous impacts catching many scientists by surprise with how soon they are occurring. In 2014 two independent teams of scientists reported that the West Antarctic Ice Sheet is likely irreversibly retreating. 3.3 meters of sea level rise equivalent of ice there is being destabilized by a warming ocean and energy is going into the net melting of ice all over the planet. The paleoclimate record indicates that increasing global temperature by just 1.5-2 °C above preindustrial temperature commits the system to an eventual 6-9 meters of sea level rise, a large fraction of which could arrive within the next 100 years. Corals may not survive this century of warming and acidifying oceans, and droughts and floods linked to global warming—and conflict linked to those droughts—have already caused four countries to face famine. Because of the decades to millennial long lag between a climate forcing and our feeling the full effect, due to the thermal inertia of the ocean and response time of the ice sheets, the effects we are feeling now are largely just the beginning of the result of emissions from the 20th century. And emissions have been increasing steadily for decades. We are also seeing numerous amplifying feedbacks: loss of albedo (heat reflectivity) from ice melt, permafrost melt, methane release and massive wildfires; the Earth is starting to wrest any possible further human control of the climate away. We're about out of time on this, if not already.

Although this phenomenon of desertification is hitting areas like Kalmykia harder and faster than other areas, it is only a matter of time before it spreads. Climate change is affecting the land around us and our livestock. Heatwaves, droughts, and even changes in parasites resulting from climate change are affecting livestock throughout the world. On top of that, climate change is affecting rainfall patterns, leading to new cases of desertification every day. The effects it can have on our crops are boundless. Rising temperatures are not only affecting our crop's ability to grow but leading to increases in the amount of water and nutrients our crops need to survive. Due to the increases of droughts caused by climate change, getting the necessary amount of water needed will become more and more difficult. The rising heat and growing amount of carbon dioxide is also leading to increased amounts of weeds, pests, and fungi found on farms, which all compete with the crops for water and nutrients. If we're not careful, areas all over the world will experience these harsh side effects more and more, leading to more places becoming like Kalmykia. As the global population keeps growing, these problems are going to become more prevalent. If we don't want the whole world to become a vast desert, the time to change is now.

The land, the culture, the appearance of the people are much like Mongolia, which is also struggling with changes to their environment. Also nomadic people, the Mongolians have a lot of geologic riches and are not under Russian rule (at least not any more). Fascinating place to visit...one day, traveling in our van with a Mongolian guide, we traveled 7 hours without seeing another vehicle, phone line, or electric line. Just herd animals, mostly sheep, and isolated gers, the round home where most Mongolians in the countryside reside. It was a fascinating adventure.

That landscape looks like Mars. Let's hope Earth is not at risk of becoming another dead planet.

This article reminded me of a report years ago, possibly in this newspaper. Qaddafi was in power in Libya, and tried an experiment which worked. He had a large enough piece of desert to make a workable experiment, and fenced it thoroughly to keep nomads and their flocks off it. The desert bloomed after a year or two. This is no immediate help to people in the situation reported, but went some way to make it more credible that Libya was actually the breadbasket of the Roman Empire.

“An enclosure where food was once stored for animals is now covered with sand.” Actually, it is not an enclosure, it is abandoned irrigation equipment, an even more poignant symbol.

Climate change is unquestionably an existential threat, not only to humanity but also to much of life on Earth. However, other human impacts such as deforestation and overgrazing have already destroyed vast regions of the planet. Climate change is no doubt exacerbating the desertification described here, but humans and our livestock turned rich grasslands and their carbon-containing soil into desert throughout the Middle East, North and East Africa millennia ago, and the US Southwest and much of Mexico since Europeans arrived with their sheep and cattle centuries ago. Drastically reducing livestock in these vast dead landscapes would bring them gradually back to life, a recovery which could be assisted with soil conservation and re-vegetation measures, including intensively managed grazing where possible. Recovering soils and stands of grass sequester a great deal of carbon. The herding cultures which resulted in ecosystem destruction are already doomed by the loss of the grass they depended upon, but could be recruited as essential participants in ecological recovery.

The difference between the farm in Russia and a lot of rural America is disconcerting. No junk cars on blocks, no broken down farm machinery rusting away, no badly maintained house. Instead clean, organized, a large screen flat panel TV (in the US the TV probably would be bigger), everything looks cared for. The fires in our west are part of desertification as piñon/juniper forests burn. For more than a year precipitation in Grand Junction, Colo., has been about 2/3 normal. Colorado River looks weak and tired. Lake Powell is not going to survive much longer. Humans act like an invasive species.

the climate didnt change. they have done exactly what americans did during the dust bowl- they took too much off the land. they have depleted their soil. they need conservation now.

Thank you for this, but I have lived in an American desert, which tourists often drive through and say, "There's nothing out there." Quite the contrary, to walk in that desert is to discover life all around you. So, this, "The sun rises and floods the desolate and lifeless steppe..." seems the observation of a human-centric and sleep-walking travel writer. On the other hand, if vanlifers and Instagrammers believe there is "nothing out there", maybe they will leave this hard beautiful place alone.

This is a poignant piece but I would have appreciated more background info about the history of the area and the way the climate there has changed. In one of the photos there is an irrigation system that has fallen into disuse. I assume at one point the Steppe was irrigated agriculture but there is no mention of that in the article.

This photo essay by Maxim Babenko is yet another excellent prsentation of the best photography in the NYT. I love it!

The same sort of desertification is starting where I live in southern Utah a few miles north of the Arizona strip. Increased heat and drought are killing drought tolerant plants like junipers and dunes are starting to form on my property. One more example of climate warming.

“Nature,” one farmer said, “is forcing us to leave.” Seems to me that it's humans - overgrazing, climate change - that are the cause. "Nature", however, will always prevail.

It's tough for people to lose their ways of life, but animals should not be raised or farmed, but rather allowed to live their lives freely without human intervention.

Maybe Russia needs a green wall project too.

IPCC Western N America drought 1900-2100 http://icons.wxug.com/hurricane/2013/drought-western-us-1900-2100.png It makes the recent drought here in California look like a rainforest by comparison. Regarding the droughts we're on track for, here's James Hansen from a 2012 TED Talk “An important impact, if global warming continues, will be on the breadbasket of our nation and the world, the Midwest and Great Plains, which are expected to become prone to extreme droughts, worse than the Dust Bowl, within just a few decades, if we let global warming continue. . . causing massive famines and economic decline.” https://www.ted.com/talks/james_hansen_why_i_must_speak_out_about_climate_change/transcript?language=en

This community needs to throw off the yolk of the Muscovite colonizers. There's nothing 'Russian' about them or their land.

Sheep. It appears it is long past time to get the sheep off the Kalmyks land. Much the steppe of the Western US still bears the scars of overgrazing by sheep in the midst of drought in the early to mid 1900's. With climate change in the mix sheep ranching is no longer viable in many places. Then what do they do? Wait it out elsewhere in some other endeavor.

Wonderful, thank you for the photography and story.

Not just a climate crisis but Soviet delusion that nature could be controlled at will. Believing that history is some sort of algorithm that can be studied to reveal the ultimate truth is a road to disaster - beware American culture warriors!

these power games of men. I just wish they’d know we are all in the climate crisis, I just wish they’d grow up and collectively care about all beings.

Cool looking mobile home! (Actually I have shed, but only 6’ x 9’)

Likely a product of unregulated irrigation and grazing. We're witnessing in southwest Russia now what has been happening in the Middle East/North Africa for millennia. Some places just don't have the water table to be cultivated aggressively - even for grazing.

290 miles (as the crow flies) to Sochi/ Olympic Stadium. Thanks for the reporting and images from such a critical part of the world.

The desolation is so beautiful, and no trash littering the steppes. My heart goes out to these seemingly gentle people. The desertification could happen here in the US. Even here in Gloucester Massachusetts, we are in drought. The southwest US is in severe drought, and more wildfires are likely to occur. Yet no one is going to stop burning fossil fuels. Half of our country thinks global warming is a hoax.

As one who came of age in the 1960s and who knew or cared little of the wonders of our planet, I appreciate reading about and seeing them. I tender my thanks to the photojournalists and the NYT for helping to bring the world to me.

Amazingly resilient people in an unforgiving landscape. They survive out of pure obstinacy. And the sheep, it appears a miracle they survive at all. Makes me want to send a rescue caravan to carry them all to a paradise of green trees and grassland. Beautiful faces!

Yes the Chinese authoritarian government does agree strongly with the Trump crowd on one thing and that is that climate change does not exist and they as would Trump ignore the scientific results including the desertification of grasslands, smog so thick that visibility becomes near zero for weeks and polar caps melting raising sea levels wrecking havoc on coastal cities to the jubilation of fellow strong men the Russians who hunger to sweep into these melt zones in order to rapidly suck out the region’s environmentally hzzardous fossil fuel reserves.