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The Contributions of the Sino-European Survey Expeditions to the Understanding of the Environmental History of Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia
Type
fundamental research project
Start Date
01 June 2006
End Date
01 November 2007
Status
completed
Keywords
- Environmental history
History of cartography
History of cartography
history of geography
science policy
travels and exploration
scientific expeditions
environmental history
climate change
Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia (China
1912-1949)
Chinese Central Asia
Description
This project is concerned with the cartographic fieldwork conducted between the two world wars, and the ways in which the humanities and geosciences have contributed to the study of Central Asia. To comprehend how archeologists, historians, geographers and cartographers have influenced the development of theories on "the geographical pivot of history," we will propose an account of a remarkable expedition that explored the Gobi desert. The environment of the Gobi, the second largest desert in the world, has changed so dramatically since the Cretaceous period that the previously subtropical region is now experiencing the most continental climate in the Old World. Formed in this region every spring, giant sandstorms hit northern China and close the airports of Korea and Japan. Dust from the dry lakes of Edsin-gol even color the Californian sky. What NASA has called the most degraded landscape on Earth used to be the natural environment of the flourishing oases of the Silk Road. Agriculture was practiced there 2000 years ago but mysteriously disappeared after the 15th century. Mapping what happened to the oases, rivers and terminal lakes at the foot of the snow-clad Qilianshan Mountains would help understand how local communities adjusted to life-threatening changes.
Leader contributor(s)
Forêt, Philippe
Partner(s)
Institute of Cartography, ETH Zurich, Gerda Henkel Foundation, Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study, Institute of Archaeology, University College London
Funder(s)
Topic(s)
History of cartography
history of geography
science policy
travels and exploration
scientific expeditions
environmental history
climate change
Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia (China
1912-1949)
Chinese Central Asia
Method(s)
Archival research
analysis of visual records
fieldwork techniques in geography
Range
Institute/School
Range (De)
Institut/School
Principal
Philippe Forêt
Eprints ID
215239
14 results
Now showing
1 - 10 of 14
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PublicationThe books of the Black CityIn May 1909, a group of horsemen were seeking shelter as a violent sandstorm blocked out the skies above the Gobi desert. Colonel Pyotr Kuzmich Kozlov and his cossacks entered the ruins of Karakoto, the Black City. The Russian officer noted in his journal that it was here, in 1209, that an entire garrison had committed suicide by slitting their throats while the city was not even under siege. What explanation can there be for this mass suicide? As he was contemplating this question, his men drew him from his thoughts: in a corner tower they had found some books that they wanted to use to make a fire. Kozlov examined them and managed to make out some of the archaic writing of the Tanguts who were wiped out by Genghis Khan. The following morning, they discovered thousands of books that described in great detail the long agony of the city.Type: newspaper articleJournal: A Book of Unspeakable ThingsIssue: 1
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PublicationIs the Earth drying up? : The enigma that survey expeditions to Chinese Central Asia tried to solve( 2007-10-26)Geographers begun to probe new theories on climate change at the turn of the 20th century. In this paper I will explain how the concept of global warming was discussed and proofs of global warming examined well before the early 1960s - this would be the date given by Weart for the discovery of global warming, when an American astrophysicist at the University of Colorado at Boulder noticed that the sky in the Rocky Mountains was no longer as bright as it used to be. Cartography has played a more crucial role in the discovery of global warming than atmospheric chemistry has. I can present here only one example of the significance of cartography: the survey of the western half of China (the two Mongolias, Inner and Outer, the provinces of Gansu and Ningxia, Eastern Turkestan or Xinjiang, and Tibet) that accompanied debates held in London on the desiccation of the Earth.Type: presentation
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PublicationType: presentation
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Publication"An Interesting Geographical Change" : Hedin, Stein and Huntington's surveys of climate change( 2012-11-08)Studying the contribution of the lakes of Central Asia to the discovery of global warming must touch on science policy in the early 20th century, the uneasy relationship that learned Europe used to have with the environmental history of colonial Asia, and the production and mobility of new and potentially troubling knowledge. I intend to provide an account of how three independent scholars engaged the Royal Geographical Society of London and the international geography community. I will intertwine their maps, private letters, travelogues and scientific reports from the field with the history of theorizing on climate change. My analysis of Sven Hedin, Ellsworth Huntington and Aurel Stein's interactions with their colleagues promises to challenge the current narrative on the discovery of global warming.Type: presentation
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PublicationType: presentation
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PublicationGobi desertSeveral entries ("Gobi desert," "Ellsworth Huntington," "Lop Nor," "Tianshan Mountains") in The Encyclopedia of World Geography, by Robert W. McColl, ed., Golson Books, 2005.Type: book sectionJournal: The Encyclopedia of World GeographyVolume: Volume 1
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PublicationType: presentation
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PublicationType: journal articleJournal: Le Monde des CartesIssue: 187
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PublicationType: presentation