“Why is the sky orange?”
I pulled the sheets from around my eyes and looked at my daughter. “What do you mean?”, I said.
“The sky. It’s orange”, she stated in a very matter of fact way.
I rolled over and pulled the curtain to one side. I peered through my half-awake eyes out onto the streets of Beijing which were indeed shrouded by a distinctive orange haze. It was like the city had been dipped and soaked in a cup of English tea, leaving a sepia tone to everything that it had touched.
“I think it might be a sandstorm”, I said in surprise. She stood in silence and looked puzzled.
The confusion was understandable. The last time a sandstorm had descended on Beijing was well before she was born. It was the first time she, and many other children in Beijing, were waking up to the sight of orange sand-filled skies.
As a photographer, I did what you might expect I did. I went out immediately into the sandstorm to begin photographing.
For the past 15 years, my work has focused mainly on telling stories about the climate crisis and global environmental issues. Normally, I travel far and wide across the Asia-Pacific region to document these issues. This time however, I was in the middle of an environmental crisis right in the city where I live.
As I ventured out into the sandstorm to begin making pictures, I began to reflect on the last time I had photographed a sandstorm in China. In 2009, I embarked on a 6-week overland journey travelling from Beijing to the far west of the country to document the problems China was facing due to increasing desertification.
Desertification is the conversion of arable and habitable regions into either deserts or arid land. It’s caused by a myriad of factors including climate change, inappropriate agricultural practices and water mismanagement. It often results in the creation of more dry and degraded land which is prime territory for the creation of sandstorms. During this journey, I photographed many sandstorms as I made by way through some the country’s worst hit regions.
Over a quarter of China’s northern and western regions are covered with desert and/or arid land, so sandstorms have long been a problem in the north of the country. While they continue to plague those remote regions of China, Beijing has suffered fewer in the past decade, largely due to aggressive reforestation efforts near the capital. This month’s sand storm however was a clear reminder that sandstorms are still a threat to this region.
The winds were high as I made by way out into the morning rush hour. Particles of dust and sand were being whipped through the trees at high speed, lashing the pedestrians shuffling along the street trying to make their way to work. Masks covered people’s faces and coats were drawn over heads, as people tried their best to shield themselves from the orange windy onslaught.
Making pictures in these conditions is difficult. The first thing you notice is the sand and dust getting into your eyes. Within minutes it feels like you are peering through eyelids tinged with abrasive edges that dry your eyes with every blink.
The sandstorm is loaded with harmful particulates, mainly classified as PM10 (less than 10 μm in size) and PM2.5 (less than 2.5 μm in size). Sand makes up the former and dust makes up the latter. It’s the PM2.5 particulates you really need to worry about because they are small enough to get deep into your lungs. As such, a heavy duty air filter mask is mandatory in these conditions.
You also notice that your camera quickly develops a fine layer of sand and dust on its surface. Changing lenses is almost out of the question, as the fear of that dust getting into the camera, where it may not be able to be cleaned out, is too great.
I plow on through the storm. Commuters are either rushing to get to work, or rushing to get out of the storm, so most ignore me as I linger in interesting places and try to make images of them.
I try to get low, so that I can frame the full extent of the orange sky in the pictures. The sun barely peeks through the sand and dust, as I position figures in my pictures in an attempt to show the relationship between people and this dystopian environment that has befallen the city.
I last about two and half hours before I feel I have spent long enough in the sandstorm. The conditions have already become wearing and I feel I have made enough pictures that capture the feeling of being within it.
The pictures here, along with the video, show you what it is like to experience this extreme weather event. Desertification is an environmental issue that isn’t covered much in the mainstream news but extreme sandstorm events like this remind us that it is a constant threat. It’s also not just an issue that faces China. Deserts are expanding across the world and as our planet warms, it’s an issue that will be facing many more of us in the future.