Near-Term Environmental Stressors: Climate Change

Abstract

This chapter begins with an introduction to the climate warming phenomenon globally and briefly chronicles China's involvement in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). It treats China's energy policy, its heavy reliance on coal, low energy efficiency, and development of alternate energy sources. Then, China's traditional agriculture is discussed, with an emphasis on methane formation through wet rice cultivation. The chapter examines natural climate variability, for example the East Asian monsoon, which influences climate variability, and then presents information on observed climate change effects: changes in temperature, precipitation, surface evaporation, and sunshine duration. A special section examines extreme weather events in recent years, covering floods, drought, heat waves, sea level rises, and typhoons. The last section of the chapter introduces models used by Chinese scientists and preliminary estimates on ways in which climate change will affect production of rice, wheat, maize, and cotton. It also discusses the limitation of climate change models in predicting outcomes for China's food security. PU - SPRINGER PA - PO BOX 17, 3300 AA DORDRECHT, NETHERLANDS