Emily’s Piece #3: Part 1 of 3 — The Steppe
Introducing Emily's three-part series about climate change in Mongolia, set in three locations: the grassland steppe, the capital city of Ulaanbaatar and the Gobi Desert.
Mongolia has a many-thousand year history of herding livestock. But in the past twenty years, tens of thousands have left the countryside because of a natural disaster called "dzud,” which kills animals en masse during winter. This series begins on the grassland steppe, capturing how daily life is compromised by extreme weather, and how an agrarian community has adapted to the loss of livestock.
"The loss wasn't purely financial — it was social and spiritual too, undermining an ancient way of life in small, close-knit communities."
