THE CHINESE “DUST BOWL”
DESERTIFICATION CAUSED BY ECOLOGICALLY DAMAGING HUMAN ACTIVITIES, 2006
BENOIT AQUIN (CA)
Deserts now cover 18% of China, and a quarter of them were caused by ecologically damaging human activities. Overexploitation of arable land, overgrazing and increasingly deep drilling for water are at the root of what has become the Chinese “Dust Bowl”, a phenomenon that hasn’t been seen since the 1930s, when the American Midwest and Canadian Prairies suffered from a devastating drought. China’s situation is quickly becoming the world’s most massive and rapid conversion of arable land into barren sand dunes. The resulting sand is picked up by the wind and transported (in the form of giant sandstorms) all over China and into Korea, Japan, and even North America.
In an effort to reverse the situation, the Chinese government has initiated the largest environmental restoration initiative the world has ever seen, and has begun a mass exodus of environmental refugees displaced by the advancing sand.
BIO
Humankind’s relationship with the environment is a common denominator in Benoit’s work as a whole. The environment thus becomes a generic term to define dynamics involving social, economic and spiritual elements. Benoit believes in the power humans have to create their future. His documentary projects have depicted catastrophic oil spills, overexploitation of arable land, and poor agricultural techniques and resource-extraction methods.
His work resides in several collections, including the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Canada; the National Gallery of Canada; the Library of Congress in Washington, USA; and the Collection Pictet in Geneva, Switzerland. Benoit is the recipient of the National Magazine Silver Award for Photojournalism and Photo Essays (2007) and the Prix Pictet (2008) and is represented by Galerie Hugues Charbonneau in Montreal, Canada.