Environmental Impact of the Qinghai-Tibet
Railway in the Long Term
F.6C
(2) Chan Sze Yan
(5) Chung Hoi Ching
(6) Chung Wing Yan
(7) Fung Hoi Kwan Cynthia
(18) Wong Wing Tung
(Milk Milk Group)
The Qinghai-Tibet Railway, also known as The Qingzang Railway, is a railway
which connects Xiling to Lhasa in the People Republic of China. It is the first railway
that connects China proper and Tibet Autonomous Region. Because of the altitude and
terrain, it’s the last province-level entity to have railway connection. Direct trains run
from Beijing, Chengdu, Chongqing, Xining and Lanzhou, creating a straight
connection between Lhasa and other major cities in PRC.
The Railway includes the Tangula Pass, which at 5,072 metres above sea level is
the world highest rail track, breaking the previous record retained by Peruvian
Railway by 255 metres.
Air in Tibet is much thinner in that in sea level, only 35% to 40% of oxygen in air
at sea level. Therefore, special rail car must be used, and several oxygen factories
were built along the railway.
Before the construction of the railway, only 1 million tons of goods transported to
Tibet every year. With the railway, it is believed that the volume of goods transported
to Tibet will greatly increase. Moreover, the cost of transportation of both goods and
passengers will great decrease. The economic activities as well as tourism will be
great in the future in Tibet. Migration of Chinese to Tibet will increase too.
The environmental impact of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway is one of the important
issues that the environmentalist concerned since the declaration of construction of the
Railway. At the beginning stage of the construction, environmental protection was the
deciding factor of the project, however, there are still both positive and negative
environmental impacts of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway.
Tibetan Plateau, where the Qinghai-Tibet Railway lies on, has a very fragile
ecosystem due to its high elevation. It is still inhabited with many unique animals, like
the Tibetan antelope - chiru, as well as blue sheep, snow leopard and brown bear etc.
The Tibetan antelope (Pantholops hodgsonil) is a medioum-sized bovid which is
about 1.2 metres (4 feet) in height. It is native to the Tibetan plateau including China’s
Tibet Autonomous Region, Qinghai province, and Xinjiang province; India near
Ladakh and formerly western Nepal. The Tibetan antelope is also known commonly
by its Tibetan name chiru.
Originally, the environmentalist and also the some environmental protecting
organization worried about the Railway would cause great damage to the wildlife
habitat of the Tibetan antelope. The female Tibetan antelopes migrate from south to
north every June in order to give birth to their offspring. As mentioned, environmental
protection was a major part of the project; therefore the protection of endangered
species is emphasized. The construction was delayed in order to let the Tibetan
antelopes to cross and the government constructed passageways to allow the antelopes
to pass.
However, we are unsure if the antelopes will use the passageways because the
result is insignificant. Due to the Railway, the lives of the Tibetan antelopes are
endangered as they may not know the way of migration. Moreover, the noise and also
vibration caused by the train will definitely scare the antelopes off the tracks long
before the train approaches. Tibetan antelopes are already endangered species, if they
are unable to give birth by migration, the number of Tibetan antelopes will decrease
by a great number. Eventually, the railway may lead to the exinction of the Tibetan
antelopes. As there are only 70, 000 Tibetan antelopes in the world, it is a very seious
long term environmental effect. The construction work changed the living
environment of birds and wild animals. This railway cut the habitat into two half
which influence the activities, migrations and propagation of the wild animals. The
Railway let more people coming to Tibet, some bad people may hunt and kill the
valuable animals and sell them in the market. The lives of endangered species are in
danger.
As antelopes are parts of the food chain, the decrease in number of antelopes will
lead to a change in the trophic levels. The number of consumers will decrease and it
will affect the whole ecosystem. As the result, many animals will be affected.
Other than the effect on the Tibetan antelopes, the Tibetan Railway has other
environmental effects as well.
New problems arise as it’s difficult to remove the refuse that inevitably collects
wherever modern man sets up shop, even that of temporary. The railway construction
company will probably remove their own equipment, but it’s unlikely for them to take
the responsibility of the informal shantytowns that emerge along the railway, selling
meals and other services to construction workers and also truck drivers. After the
construction of the Railway, all these little settlement have no reason to stay.
Moreover, huge effort is required to remove all the garbage, broken equipment,
dilapidated buildings and miscellaneous debris that heaped near the villages. If all
these are left behind without someone cleaning up, environment will be damaged.
There are 20,000 builders on the construction site along the railway who generate 5
tons of garbage daily. After six years, this garbage will amount to 7,000 tons. Each
type must be dealt with separately. Degradable garbage that does pollute water is
buried on the spot, while daily sewage is sprinkled about to let it evaporate. In fact,
the construction of the Railway may have polluted the source of the Yellow River.
Aquatic wildlife is also harmed. Serious water pollution in the Yellow River will
cause problems for the people as well as animals in the inland China.
Besides the worry of environmentalists about the railway weaken the wildlife
habitat, they also worry the railway would lead to a local mineral exploitation in Tibet.
The open traffic of the Railway will lead to the increase in economic activities. Up to
this day, there’s no finding of significant exploitable natural resources at the south of
the Kunlun Mountains on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. An oil field in the Lumpola
Basin is however too small and remote for commercial exploitation. Mineral
exploitation is a great worry as the exploitation will lead to the problem of erosion. In
addition, if the local natural mineral resources are extracted, the whole environment is
harmed.
As economic activities and also inland migration to Tibet will increase, the
environment is actually in dangerous situation. Environmentalists worry that the
railway will bring in larger numbers of visitors, both in the short term and long term,
in turn increasing great pressure on local wildlife and plant life. The Qinghai-Tibet
Railway is the first railway that connects China proper and Tibet Autonomous Region,
as the transport becomes more efficient, so the cost of transportation will decrease
while the volume of transport to Tibet will increase. Tourist from all over the world
may not treasure Tibet and damage the environment by throwing rubbish everywhere
and smoking which leads to air pollution.
Ecotourism will endanger the living environment of the wildlife animal. As more
and more people coming to the wildlife habitats and the land pressure become greater.
Moreover, the tourist will throw their rubbish anywhere and damage the environment.
In addition, the noise produced by the tourists will frightened the wildlife animals and
force them to leave the place where they originally leave. After the opening of the
Qinghai-Tibet Railway, the degree of ecotourism will increase greatly and the effect
on different aspects is unavoidable.
More and more people from mainland China will migrate to Tibet permanently or
temporarily because of the more efficient transport. As there are more people in Tibet,
so the volume of waste will also increase with increasing use of consumer goods,
much rubbish is created as the result. The rubbish are dumped in the landfill, therefore
greenhouse gas methane will then release and Greenhouse Effect will occur and lead
to global warming. Global warming affects the whole environment and also climate
and animals.
There is also positive impact on environment. In Tibet, wood is the major fuel for
rural inhabitants. The ecosystem is harmed by cutting down the trees for fuel, and
trees take long years to recover due to the adverse growing condition in Tibet. The
Railway can transport coal, which cannot be produced in Tibet, affordable as the
replacement. The degree of deforestation will then be decreased. However, the
increase in overall combustion, due to increased human activities, may still affect the
long term health of population, because of the already thin atmosphere there.
The environmental impact on soil is somehow important as well. Although
protections and precautions are carried out in order to protect the environment along
the Qinghai-Tibet Railway during the construction of the railway, environmental
impacts also appear. Those impacts may not happen right after the construction, but
they will start appearing when time goes on. Those environmental impacts are in
long-term bases, they will bring disadvantages to areas along the railway.
During the construction of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway, in order to obtain more
spaces for construction, vegetation along the railway had to be removed. When
vegetation is removed, top soil was exposed to wind which will be easily blown away
because of the lacking of vegetation cover. When the top soil is being blown away,
the soil underneath is unprotected and become looser, soil erosion may happen easily
and rapidly. The climate of Qinghai and Tibet is dry and arid, with relatively low
rainfall and extreme temperature and different seasons, soil are less protected and
bring along the problem of desertification easily.
With the build of the railway, desertification in some regions has worsened and
glaciers have receded.
Because vegetation was removed along the railway line, as vegetation is the
producer, which is the most important part in the ecosystem, removed. Consumers
such as animals will migrate to other places where dense vegetation can be found. We
can see that vegetation is the most important factor in an ecosystem because it has
linked effect brought to other trophic levels such as carnivores, herbivores and
omnivores.
For the environment impacts created by the Qinghai-Tibet Railway is so significant
that everyone should try their best to reserve the natural landscape and precious
culture of Tibet. Therefore, something should be done in order to minimize the
negative impacts.
To solve these problems, government can establish nature reserves.
Establishing nature reserves is an important method to strengthen ecological
improvement and environmental protection work and implement the strategy of
sustainable development. In order to restore the natural ecosystem, human activities
such as economic development should be strictly limited in the established nature
reserves. Then the ecological environment in most of the nature reserves will become
stable. Especially, breeding grounds, habitats and important ecosystems for rare and
endangered species, important wetlands for migratory birds, as well as the natural
landscapes, geological sites and biological sites of scientific importance must be well
protected. Although there are 125 wild animals, 39 wild plants and typical geological
features in Tibet on the State protection list but it is uncertain whether they are really
well preserved.
To conclude, the Qinghai-Tibet Railway has great impacts on Tibet or even the
whole world.
REFERENCE:
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http://www.usembassy-china.org.cn/sandt/ptr/Qingzang-Railway-prt.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qinghai-Tibet_Railway
http://www.worldwatch.org/node/4653
http://www.usembassy-china.org.cn/sandt/TibetEnvironment.htm
http://www.tibetinfor.com.cn/english/index.htm
http://info.tibet.cn/en/news/sur/travel/t20050919_55814.htm
http://english.gov.cn/2006-06/04/content_299832.htm
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