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As Beijingers coughed and hacked their way through another
smoggy day, there were tentative signs the government was
becoming aware of the broader impact of climate change and
may be gearing up to do something about it.
Driving efforts to combat pollution is a growing awareness
of the impact of environmental issues on political stability
and on how it affects China’s growing economic wellbeing and
food provision.
China is the world’s most populous nation, its second biggest
economy, is the biggest producer of CO2
gases and is home to some of the most polluted cities on the
planet, the capital included. Climate change has also wrecked
havoc on the rivers and lakes and glaciers that water the
country, and desertification is eating into arable land.
The central government has also released a hefty tome entitled
the Second National Assessment Report on Climate Change,
which assesses the impact of global warming for China and
says climate change could slash harvests, devastate rivers
and cause droughts and floods.
“China faces extremely grim ecological and environmental
conditions under the impact of continued global warming and
changes to China’s regional environment,” said the report,
which was published late last year.
However, China is still very much in the initial phase of
its transformation from an agrarian society to an industrial
one, which means that greenhouse gases blamed for global warming
are unlikely to even start falling off before 2030.
Without any action, grain production could fall from anything
between five and 20 per cent by 2050, says the report.
It said climate change would cause major imbalances in water
resources every year.
“Without effective measures in response, by the latter part
of the 21st century, climate change could still constitute
a threat to our country’s food security,” the report said.
Rising seas would also cause problems in the big cities of
the coast, many of which have been the economic engines of
Chinese expansion in the past three decades.
In the 30 years up to 2009, the sea level off Shanghai rose
11.5 centimetres and would probably rise another 10 to 15
centimetres in the next 30 years.
Meanwhile, after months of prevarication, the city government
has agreed to start to publish more detailed air quality data
on Beijing, following a public outcry over official government
readings that hugely underestimated just how bad the air pollution
is in the nation’s capital.
The Beijing municipal government plans to publish hourly
air quality reports based on an international standard known
as PM2.5, which measures tiny particles
that are 2.5 microns or less in diameter.
Until now, most Beijing residents have had to rely on the
US embassy website for their data, on a Twitter feed - and,
given that Twitter is banned, this was not an option for most
Beijingers.
The initial response to the US embassy feed was a request
to stop publishing the data. But the level of pollution in
Beijing is obvious.
During the past year, smog at times forced the city to close
roads and shut the airport. Reports in the state media about
the city reaching its target on “blue-sky days” are met with
guffaws on microblogs.
Even prominent figures such as property magnate Pan Shiyi
have been outspoken in criticising the government’s official
readings on pollution. “Frequent hazy days triggering public
concern” was listed among the top 10 environmental news items
for 2011 by China Environment News, a newspaper run
by the environment ministry.
Meanwhile, air pollution levels in Hong Kong were the worst
ever last year, a finding that may further undermine the city’s
role as an Asian financial centre as business executives relocate
because of health concerns.
Source - The Irish Times
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