Radical Environmental Differences Between Orlando and a Chinese Desert

¶ … person's environment: A female adult living in rural China at 40° North and 85° East is living in the Taklimakan Desert, the largest desert in China, placed in the middle of China's largest basin, " .. Tarim in Xinjiang Province" (eoearth.org). She is very likely to be a Uighur, a " .. sedentary, village-dwelling people who live in the network of oases." The principal crops are wheat, corn, sorghum and melons; cotton is also grown (Encyclopedia Britannica).

In the Uighur language, Taklimakan means, "The Sea of Death"; it also means, "You can get into it but can never get out" (travelChinaguide.com) This desert is said to be the second largest "shifting-sand desert" after the Sahara Desert in Africa and 85% of the land area in the Taklimakan Desert is shifting sand (eoearth.org). It is located about 300 miles southwest of the Chinese city of Urumqi.

There is very little vegetation, as the typical landscape in the basin is made up of these deposits: gravel, sand, silt, and clay, but there are "freshwater springs fed by mountain snowmelt," and these springs create lush oases in the basin. The few people living in the desert must, in terms of survival, be near the oases; and those individuals must subsist on irrigated agriculture.

So a woman 44 years old living at 40° North and 85° East is living in a harsh, hot, sandy environment, with oases providing the only source of water. The Taklimakan Desert is " .. so inhospitable to humans" that few people live there (eoearth.org). As to humans, the Chinese government has operated an " .. extensive relocation program .. transferring people to the Taklimakan region," but the threat entailed by moving people from the eastern part of China to the Taklimakan is because " .. of water scarcity" (eoearth.org).

If China moves too many people there could be a calamity. The student's environment: I live in Orlando, Florida, Orlando has over 321,418,820 people, and 23.1% of the population is under 18 and 14.5% are over 65 (U.S. Census). 77.4% of the population is Caucasian; 13.2% is African-American; and 17.4% is Latino or Hispanic (U.S. Census). 86.3% of those over 25 have a high school education and 29.3% have a bachelor's degree (U.S. Census). 63.5% of males over 16 are in the workforce; 58.7% of females over 16 are in the workforce; and the median household income is $53, 482 in Orlando (U.S.

Census). Crime: there are 17 murders per 100,000 people in Orlando; 126 rapes per 100,000; 1,020 auto thefts per 100,000. The weather in Orlando ranges from an average of 82° in July to an average of 59° in January. The most daily sunshine hours occur in June, and the wettest month is July (an average of 196mm of rain) (www.holiday-weather.com). The literacy rate among adults is just 47% and 20% of Orlando citizens are living at the lowest level of literacy (chacha.com).

As far as culture, Orlando has theme parks (Disney World), fine art museums, including the Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of American Art and the Cornell Fine Arts Museum (visitorlando.com). Comparison of the two environments: It would be hard for any two environments to be more dramatically different than these two. Orlando of course is a modern city, with freeways, entertainment attractions like Disney World, art museums, schools, universities, sports facilities (the NBA Orlando Magic), and fine hotels.

The rainfall in Orlando averages 53.7 inches per year and the temperature is mild most of the year though more humid than some cities in America. Compared with Orlando, the Taklimakan Desert is hot, dry (less than 1.57 inches annually), and the desert is uninhabitable for the most part.