Extreme weather ahead for Yangtze basin

• Source: Global Times
• [02:58 November 11 2009]
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By Deng Jingyin

Temperatures across the Yangtze River Basin will go up 1.5 to 2 C over the next 50 years, which will bring more droughts, floods, heat waves and storms, according to a climate vulnerability assessment report by the World Wide Fund China.

"Climate change will further increase the frequency of extreme weather in this region, such as the snow storm in South China last year," said Xu Ming, the report's leading from the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

The report released Tuesday said temperature in the basin, a lifeline for one third of China's population, has been rising since the 1990s.

The basin runs 6,300 kilometers from the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau all the way to Shanghai.

According to data collected from 147 monitoring stations across the 1.8-million-square -meter river basin, the temperature rose 0.33 C during the 1990s.

In addition, other findings show the temperature jumped by an average of 0.71 C from 2001 to 2005.

"The Yangtze Vulnerability Assessment is an important symbol of China's commitment to fighting climate change," said James Leape, director general of WWF-International.

The report warned that the warming climate will severely affect the agricultural and ecosystems in wetlands, forests and grasslands.

"Global warming will significantly reduce crops production, such as rice and grain," Xu said.

"The forests in Hunan and Jiangxi provinces tend to be much more vulnerable."

The production of rice will drop by 9–41 percent while production of other crops will drop 25–50 percent by 2080 in the Sichuan Basin.

"It is estimated that climate change has contributed 81 percent to ecosystem degradation, and human activities contributed 18 percent," he added.

The report said wetlands in the Yangtze River Basin with habitats for birds and fish, would be the hardest hit.

Lower water levels in the area, such as the Poyang and the Dongting lakes, will reduce the number of aquatic birds and fish species, while warming water will strip the overall ecosystems in this region.

The Three Gorges Dam, the world's largest electricity-generating plant, will also face risks because global warming will increase snow melting and precipitation, which will trigger landslides and debris flow.