Climate change hits the needy
Source: Xinhua |
December 14, 2009, Monday
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THE cabbages strewn across the courtyard of Song Baolin's home are all he has to feed his family for the next year.
Normally at this time of year, crops would be heaped onto roofs and in courtyards, says Song, 56. "But this year, many villagers like me had no harvest because of the severe drought."
Song is a farmer at Heidagou village in Chaoyang city, northeast China's Liaoning Province. Since June, Liaoning has suffered one of the worst droughts in 60 years. The drought hit more than 2 million hectares of farmland and affected 3 million people.
In the last four years, global warming has been blamed for worsening droughts around Liaoning, with a summer drought in 2006, a spring drought in 2007 and an autumn drought in 2008.
Last month, the National Development and Reform Commission issued the Progress Report 2009 of China's Policies and Actions for Addressing Climate Change, warning of severe weather around the country.
In the past 100 years, the country's average temperature rose by 1.1 degrees Celsius, higher than the worldwide increase, the report said. China's annual mean temperature has risen steadily for the past 12 years and reached 9.6 degrees last year, 0.7 degrees higher than the previous year, the report said.
In northwest China, the annual mean temperature from 1987 to 2000 was 0.7 degrees higher than that from 1961 to 1986. As the temperature rose, droughts and sandstorms increased.
Climate change has become the new threat for the abject poor - those with an annual per capita income of less than 1,196 yuan (US$175) - whose number was estimated at 40 million by the end of 2008. Almost 95 percent of them live in climate endangered areas.
"In China, poverty-stricken places have low emissions of greenhouse gases, but they are affected most by the effects of climate change," says Lin Erda, director of the agriculture and climate change research center at the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences.
Wayne Hancock, an independent Australian consultant on environment and agriculture working on development projects in China, says climate poverty is becoming more serious in China as unpredictable weather events are appearing more frequently.
A report issued by Oxfam Hong Kong in July showed that as global warming became worse, surface temperatures around the country would rise by 2.3 to 3.3 degrees by 2050.
Normally at this time of year, crops would be heaped onto roofs and in courtyards, says Song, 56. "But this year, many villagers like me had no harvest because of the severe drought."
Song is a farmer at Heidagou village in Chaoyang city, northeast China's Liaoning Province. Since June, Liaoning has suffered one of the worst droughts in 60 years. The drought hit more than 2 million hectares of farmland and affected 3 million people.
In the last four years, global warming has been blamed for worsening droughts around Liaoning, with a summer drought in 2006, a spring drought in 2007 and an autumn drought in 2008.
Last month, the National Development and Reform Commission issued the Progress Report 2009 of China's Policies and Actions for Addressing Climate Change, warning of severe weather around the country.
In the past 100 years, the country's average temperature rose by 1.1 degrees Celsius, higher than the worldwide increase, the report said. China's annual mean temperature has risen steadily for the past 12 years and reached 9.6 degrees last year, 0.7 degrees higher than the previous year, the report said.
In northwest China, the annual mean temperature from 1987 to 2000 was 0.7 degrees higher than that from 1961 to 1986. As the temperature rose, droughts and sandstorms increased.
Climate change has become the new threat for the abject poor - those with an annual per capita income of less than 1,196 yuan (US$175) - whose number was estimated at 40 million by the end of 2008. Almost 95 percent of them live in climate endangered areas.
"In China, poverty-stricken places have low emissions of greenhouse gases, but they are affected most by the effects of climate change," says Lin Erda, director of the agriculture and climate change research center at the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences.
Wayne Hancock, an independent Australian consultant on environment and agriculture working on development projects in China, says climate poverty is becoming more serious in China as unpredictable weather events are appearing more frequently.
A report issued by Oxfam Hong Kong in July showed that as global warming became worse, surface temperatures around the country would rise by 2.3 to 3.3 degrees by 2050.
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