500 million years ago, green grass appeared on the earth. The day and night breathing of boundless ocean of grass enhanced the concentration of oxygen in the air to an extent suitable for the survival of all animals. When early animals embarked on the long-distance evolution, grass became the base of wilderness food chain and nurtured all life on Earth from Archean era to today.

China’s Inner Mongolia has six world-renowned grasslands such as Hulun Buir Grassland, Horqin grassland and Xilin Gol Grassland, which occupy a total area of nearly one-tenth of the Chinese territory. Inner Mongolia Grassland is a major livestock production base in the country, where the fertile prairie gave birth to rich resources of animal species. However, in the past few years, taking economic development as the goal, the local government expanded the exploitation of prairie opencast coal mines and the construction of coal and electricity bases without restraint, which led to groundwater scarcity, ecological destruction, severe pollution, grassland degradation, deaths of cattle and sheep and herders’ removal. The beautiful grasslands are being rapidly encroached, and the landscape “cows and sheep can be seen when the wind blows and grass lowers” in the ancient poem is disappearing.

We have seen many beautiful things appeared in our lifetime, but in nature, many beautiful things disappeared. The excessive request of human turned forest into farmland, grassland into desert and river into sewage ditch, and made everywhere a scene of devastation. The qualitative change in the depths of vast Inner Mongolia Grassland is another hidden crisis on Earth.

*image (left)
courtesy of the artist and 798 Photo Gallery