In the Gobi, temperatures can range from 40 below in the winter to 115 above in the summer. First came a drought last summer. That, and an infestation of rodents, killed off much of the grasses that sustain the livestock. The widespread livestock deaths have many nomadic families struggling. The sick can't get to doctors or obtain medicine.
Pneumonia is on the rise.
A traditional nomad breakfast, for example, consists of flour biscuits and tea with milk. Now there is no milk for the tea because the domestic animals that have survived often don't have milk for their own young. Toughened by their hard lives, many nomads show little emotion over their plight. But the unusually bad times are breaking some down. Covers 604,103 square miles between Russia and China.