When I think of Mongolia, I immediately think fo Ghengis Khan, mountains, open planes and endless blue skies. I know almost nothing else about Mongolia. Other than it comes incredibly close to having a border with Kazakhstan, but doesn’t quite make it.

Apparently Mongolia’s native horses (or Przewalski's horses) are the last truly wild horses. They have more chromosomes than domesticated horses. I’ve heard the fermented mare’s milk is especially tasty. Feel free to try it and report back in the comments…

Like Kazakhstan, Mongolia still has a large nomadic population with around a quarter of Mongolians still living Nomadic lives. This however is changing rapidly due to increased urbanisation, and loss of livestock due to climate change. Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia’s capital is growing at a frenzied pace with over 600,000 people migrating there and largely living in unplanned ‘ger’ districts.

This increased urbanisation is creating problems for Ulaanbaatar. I had no idea, but Ulaanbaatar is the world’s coldest capital with an annual average temperature of −0.4 °C. It also lacks basic infrastructure, and with a rapidly growing population, people switched to coal burning boilers to keep warm. A bitterly cold climate, unplanned urban growth and burning coal is the perfect recipe for dangerously high levels of air pollution. Recently Ulaanbaatar has banned burning coal, although it’s unclear if this will have the desired effects.

I really didn’t expect urbanisation and pollution to be huge problems in the world’s least densely populated country. Sigh, humans!

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