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Thursday, October 28, 2010

Photo: Climate Change Driving Mongolians From Steppe to Cities


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Lifelong herder Namdag waits outside his tradional Mongolian "ger"—a round, felt home—in the outskirts of the Mongolian capital, Ulaanbaatar.

Namdag is one of the hundreds of thousands of Mongolians who in recent years have abandoned their nomadic herding lives for an urban existence, crowding into sprawling townships on the periphery of the capital, which has doubled its population in the last two decades.

While there are many reasons for the migration, observers say climate change is increasingly a driving force behind Mongolians' move toward the cities.

Image grab from video by Stefan Lövgren