A Decade of Dzud: Lessons From Mongolia's Deadly Winters

Short Wave

NPR

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🗓️ 29 January 2020

⏱️ 9 minutes

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Summary

Mongolia has a many-thousand year history of herding livestock. But in the past two decades, tens of thousands have left the countryside because of a natural disaster you may have never heard of. "Dzud" kills animals en masse during winter. Short Wave reporter Emily Kwong brings host Maddie Sofia this story from the grassland steppe, capturing how an agrarian community has adapted to environmental change. Follow host Maddie Sofia @maddie_sofia and reporter Emily Kwong @emilykwong1234 on Twitter. Email the show at [email protected].

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to shortwave from MPR.
0:05.6	So for people who don't know, I totally know, where is Mongolia?
0:09.6	Mongolia is in Central Asia, right between Russia and China.
0:13.2	The landscape to me looks a little bit like a mixture between Montana and Mars if you
0:17.7	can picture that delightful.
0:19.6	So this time last year, before you were shortwave's reporter, we don't like to think about that
0:24.2	time, you went to Mongolia.
0:26.2	It's true.
0:27.2	Why would one go to Mongolia in the winter?
0:29.1	All the travel guides discourage it.
0:31.2	I might discourage it, but I purposefully went there then because winter is at the heart
0:35.6	of this whole story.
0:36.9	So how cold are we talking here?
0:38.9	It's super cold.
0:40.7	Freeze your nose, hair is cold.
0:42.2	I actually had to tape hand warmers all over my microphone, you know, so it wouldn't
0:46.4	freeze.
0:47.4	Wow, it is cold.
0:48.4	Oh, I found this great piece of tape of me complaining about it.
0:52.1	Mine is 18 degrees right now.
0:54.2	It's just really cold.
0:57.1	I could tell from the way you say cold, how cold you are.
	...

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