China In Focus - Number 31

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China In Focus - Number 31
Climate Change and China's Stability
June 3, 2011 | By: Al Santoli

Editor Al Santoli Assistants: Kaity Newman and Nick Spanoudis

Introduction:

The impact of climate change across the entire earth is having significant ramifications on national and human security. It is affecting a broad range of social, political, and economic issues that will impact the course of history in the 21st century.

Today in China, massive drought and the melting of Himalayan ice caps is a major cause of concern. These climate-based developments are recurrent in world history and are proving to be unaffected by the emergence of technology and population.

Is this the end of the world, as some people would claim? Throughout history, there have been numerous disruptive cycles in nature. During the period known as the "Middle Ages" in Europe (between the 5th and 15th centuries), waves of mass starvation, plagues and extreme weather cycles wreaked social and political havoc, and drastically reduced entire populations over wide areas of the continent. There are no adequate records to study similar conditions in Asia and Africa during that period, but there is geological evidence in China that similar cooling patterns existed.

In Europe between the years of 1150 and 1460 the "Mini-Ice Age" severely impacted agriculture, reducing crop yields and altering the growing season by as much as 15 to 20 percent. Europe's growing season was shortened drastically during the coldest periods (by as much as two months). The resulting poor harvests caused an increase in the prices of crops.

The climate change also had a drastic impact on the health of Europeans; dearth and famine killed millions, while malnutrition also became much more prevalent. Malnutrition led to weakened immune systems, contributing to the influenza outbreak in 1557 and the Bubonic Plague (Black Death) in the mid 14th Century. Overall, more deaths than births were recorded during the "mini-ice age".

Social conditions became unstable, with many cases of social unrest. During the Little Ice Age, the number of storms and floods also increased substantially. Three storms were reported to have caused over 100,000 deaths. Sea levels rose, causing increased flooding as well as damage to coastal farmland.

Link to full article:
http://www2.sunysuffolk.edu/mandias/lia/little_ice_age.html

Today in North Asia:
Drought and Food Price Hikes

According to Xinhua (China's state-run news agency), the central provinces, known as the country's "home of rice and fish" are undergoing a massive drought that threatens to destabilize a significant portion of China's staple food supplies in the coming months. Almost half of all the country's rice fields have been affected and four million people do not have access to drinking water.

The volume of water in Poyang lake in Jiangxi province, normally 100 miles-long and 10 miles-wide, is now a tenth of its normal level. Fishing boats and house boats have been left stranded on a vast stretch of the lake bed, which is now lush grassland. At Honghu Lake, in Hubei province, fish farmers have seen 80 per cent of their stocks die. "I was born in 1967 and have never seen anything like this," added Li Liangjun, a fish farmer in Dianhe. "Even my father has never seen anything like it. It has not rained for nearly three months".

The drought has pushed up vegetable prices in major cities by as much as 30 percent, and the government has warned that if it continues it may have an effect on this year's rice harvest. The Chinese weather bureau has warned there is no rain in sight.

Southeast Asia: Too Much Rain and Dead Fish

On the other hand, in Southeast Asia where it rained throughout the September to May "Dry Season," more than 800 tons of milkfish or bangus (a staple in the Philippines among poor and rich families alike), have died and rotted on a fish farm near Manila. Philippine authorities are blaming it on a sudden temperature drop.

According to the Associated Press, the surface of the lake in the areas cordoned off for farming is packed with rotting milkfish. An initial investigation showed the deaths may have been caused by the temperature change as the rainy season set in after a scorching summer, which had also depleted the lake's oxygen levels. Officials have banned the sale of the rotting fish, which are being buried by the truckload, threatening regional health and economic stability.