China's average temperature may rise by 2.8 degrees Celsius by 2030 and its
crop production could tumble by 10 percent as global warming throws the climate
into disarray, a senior Chinese climate official said on Thursday.
The leading China Meteorological Administration official told a government
meeting in Beijing that global warming is likely to lift China's average
temperature -- compared to annual averages for 1961-1990 -- by 1.3 to 2.1
degrees Celsius by 2020, and by 1.5 to 2.8 degrees by 2030, the Xinhua News
Agency reported.
And these rises threaten to overturn patterns of rainfall and slash crop
output, said the official, whom Xinhua did not name.
"Our country's precipitation distribution over time and space will become
even more unbalanced," Xinhua said, citing the official, who said the changes
would lead to less rain and the accelerated spread of arid land in northern
China and around the Yangtze River, the country's largest river.
But in other areas, climate changes may lead to more severe and frequent
rainstorms that "will present a massive threat to our country's disaster
prevention system", the report said.
The official said disturbed weather patterns could cut China's crop
production by 5 to 10 percent by 2030, with wheat, rice and corn suffering the
steepest falls.
"Under the impact of cimate change, instability in our country's agricultural
production will increase and turbulence in production volumes will grow," the
report said.
Scientists believe industrial pollution and human consumption are raising
global temperatures by producing greenhouses gases that trap heat in the
atmosphere, especially carbon dioxide from burning coal and other fossil fuels.
The United States accounts for nearly a quarter -- 24 percent -- of all
emissions of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas.
Chinese Vice Premier Hui Liangyu told the Beijing meeting on Thursday that
China needed to upgrade its weather tracking and climate research to address
impending change.
"We need to observe changes in weather and climate, and the question of
global warming, from a high strategic vantage point," he said, according to the
China Meteorological Administration website (www.cma.gov.cn).
