How The UN Xinjiang Report Will Impact The Cleantech Industry

Since 2017, there have been many allegations of human rights abuses in what China calls the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, known by dissidents as East Turkestan. This disagreement over the region’s name stems from a long history of on-and-off Chinese involvement and control of the region. For the past two millennia, the area has seen instability and constantly changing rule.

Much of this instability can be traced back to a manmade environmental disaster that occurred from 1500-2000 years ago. Like other endorheic basins in the world (such as the Great Salt Lake, the Aral Sea, and the Guzman Sink in Chihuahua and New Mexico), water flows into the area but doesn’t flow out. When flows are good, endorheic basins often have salt lakes at their low points and extensive wetlands, grasslands, and other vegetation that keeps the soil from blowing away.

Unlike regions that dried up when the last glacial period ended, Xinjiang dried up in much the same way the Aral Sea dried up. Humans wouldn’t let the water flow down into the salt lakes, instead diverting it for agriculture and drinking. When this went on long enough, the lakes and wetlands dried up, leaving a gigantic dustbowl. Blowing sand buried abandoned cities, and political instability prevailed in the wastes that were once much more hospitable to civilization.

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