Wrestling Mother Nature in Beijing
Posted: Monday, April 30, 2007 8:19 AM
Filed Under:
Beijing, China
By Adrienne Mong, NBC News Producer
My nose started twitching even before I set foot outside the airport in Beijing.
While not quite hot, the air was thick.
Thick with white fluff the size of grapes.
"What is that?" I asked our driver, Mr.Guan, as he steered the car onto the highway.
 |
| Adrienne Mong / NBC News |
| Beijing in a spring haze. |
"It's pollen. From those trees," he pointed to the rows of tall poplars lining either side of the road. "They're a problem. People feel worse because of it."
I started digging in my bag for antihistamines.
"This morning, I had to wipe the car off," he continued. "It covers everything and gives people all sorts of allergies."
Sex change for trees?
Guan isn't the only one fed up. This spring, Beijing's government has decided to try out "sex change operations" on the female species of poplars, in an effort to prevent them from producing pollen. More than 300,000 poplar trees grow in the capital.
The level of poplar pollen is especially high this season, worsening Beijing's air quality – already under assault from industrial pollution and sandstorms – and adding further grief to residents who suffer from allergies or asthma.
 |
| Adrienne Mong / NBC News |
| Some of Beijing's 300,000 poplar trees. |
Local news reports this weekend said gardening experts successfully injected the first batch of female poplars – about 30,000. Officials agreed on this unusual experiment after concluding it was a better option than spraying chemicals or cutting the trees down.
China is no slouch when it comes to climate engineering. In fact, it seems determined to wrestle Mother Nature to the ground.
The government routinely seeds clouds to create rainfall, and earlier this month Chinese scientists claimed to have created artificial snow in northern Tibet for the first time, amid growing concerns over the Tibetan Plateau's melting glaciers.
