By Simon Leufstedt on February 6th, 2009
It’s not just Argentina, Australia and California who faces severe droughts and heatwaves. BBC reports that China has declared a drought emergency in northern and central parts of the country. Around four million people are suffering from water shortages while almost half of China’s winter crop is under threat.
“President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao ordered all-out efforts to fight the drought, allocating 400m yuan ($58m, £40m) in relief assistance.
China’s drought relief office called it an event “rarely seen in history”.
China faces droughts and floods annually but has seen a recent increase in extreme weather conditions.
The Chinese authorities say the current drought is expected to continue as no rain has been forecast in the affected areas for at least 10 days.”
The Chinese agriculture ministry says it’s on red alert and tries to focus on stabilising the grain production and ensure agricultural production can continue.
By Simon Leufstedt on January 31st, 2009
As a top German scientist warns that climate change is accelerating, while 2008 ends up being the tenth warmest year ever recorded and a NOAA study shows climate change is “largely irreversible for 1000 years” we hear news about severe heatwaves and droughts in Argentina, Australia and USA.
Australians are currently facing a severe heatwave with temperatures of 40-plus Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) for the southern parts of the country, making it the worst heatwave in 100 years. And the Australian government says it’s a sign of climate change.
“Climate Change Minister Penny Wong said the heatwave, which started on Wednesday, was the sort of weather scientists had been warning about.
“Eleven of the hottest years in history have been in the last 12, and we also note, particularly in the southern part of Australia, we’re seeing less rainfall,” Wong told reporters.
“All of this is consistent with climate change, and all of this is consistent with what scientists told us would happen.”"
(more…)
By Simon Leufstedt on July 23rd, 2008
As you might have noticed by now, the summer has finally arrived for us here on Green Blog. That means the posting level will be low for another couple of days, until its starts to rain, of course. Instead of making just a dull and uninteresting post about our wonderful summer holiday I want to share with you two interesting emails we’ve received during the past days:
(more…)
