Sharp increases in temperature driven by global warming are melting China’s Himalayan glaciers, an impact that threatens habitats, tourism and economic development, says a study released Tuesday. Of 111 weather stations scattered across southwestern China, 77 percent showed significant upticks in temperatures between 1961 and 2008, according to the study, published in a British peer-reviewed [...]
Tag Archives: China
Killer landslides more than double in last 7 years
In total [there were] 6,211 deaths in 494 landslide events [in 2010]. This is lower than in some previous years because of the lack of large-scale, landslide-triggering earthquakes. However, in terms of rainfall-induced events this was a bad year. In total I have recorded 83,275 deaths from landslides since September 2002, a devastating total. It [...]
Hundreds of lakes dry-up and vanish in China
Lake size is sensitive to both climate change and human activities, and therefore serves as an excellent indicator to assess environmental changes. Using a large volume of various datasets, we provide a first complete picture of changes in China’s lakes between 1960s–1980s and 2005–2006. Dramatic changes are found in both lake number and lake size; [...]
China bracing for worst drought in 200 years
The United Nations’ food agency issued an alert on Tuesday warning that a severe drought was threatening the wheat crop in China, the world’s largest wheat producer, and resulting in shortages of drinking water for people and livestock. China has been essentially self-sufficient in grain for decades for national security reasons. Any move by China [...]
2010 extreme weather in China cost $75 billion, 4800 lives
Song Lianchun, chief of the National Climate Center, said extreme weather last year caused the deaths of more than 4,800 people and resulted in direct economic losses of more than 500 billion yuan ($75 billion). He said 2010 was a freakish meteorological year for China, with severe weather hitting the country with a frequency and [...]
Drought linked to climate change tightens grip on Beijing
A months-long dry spell across northern China is threatening drinking water supplies and crops, and more bone-dry conditions are expected, state media said Monday. The capital Beijing has had no significant precipitation in more than three months, the longest such spell in the city in 40 years, the Beijing Times said. The dry conditions in [...]
Earth’s lakes now warming about 1° each decade
In the first comprehensive global survey of temperature trends in major lakes, researchers have determined that Earth’s largest lakes have warmed during the past 25 years in response to climate change. Philipp Schneider and Simon Hook of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., used satellite data to measure the surface temperatures of 167 large [...]
Yellow River run-off declining, driven by climate change
Excerpt from Nature: …the Yellow River shows a persistent decline in runoff . This decline is more pronounced from the upper to the lower basin. Daily drying-up of the river is observed more frequently at the Lijin hydrological station at the Yellow River mouth over the last 40 years, especially during the 1990s. The onset [...]
Climate change losses tripling in China finds largest re-insurer
In China, an estimated 200 million people are impacted by natural catastrophes every year. The rising number of severe weather-related natural catastrophes, also due to climate change, is increasing losses and impacting economic development. “Due to its exposure to all weather-related perils, its large population and the fast growth in economic values, China is especially [...]
South China devastated by landslides and flooding, precipitation three times normal
HEAVY RAIN and deadly landslides have left 132 people dead and scores missing in southern China, authorities said yesterday, and over a million residents have been evacuated to safety. More storms are forecast and the death toll is expected to rise. More than 10 million people in south China’s nine provinces have been affected by [...]
