Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

A rural and remote trail of dedication

2005; Lippincott Williams & Wilkins; Volume: 2; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1097/01.jbi.0000396144.35579.34

2204-2113

Barbara Sharp,

China's Ethnic Minorities and Relations

Villagers in the heart of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous region, which makes up a quarter of the Chinese territory, cope remarkably well living in a gravel desert despite an annual mean rainfall of less than 25mm. In Canada farmers are still reeling from the Brown Christmas of '98 when drought swept the prairies from British Columbia into southern Ontario, while across Australia's central deserts deadly taipans remain among the few creatures to thrive in the cruel oppressive heat. Welcome to just some of the arid lands on our planet. The World Conservation Union estimates that dryland regions cover 47 percent of the world's surface, and are inhabited by almost two billion people. And then there are the inhospitable wetlands and ice-capped regions.