Beijing's Drought Now In Year 7 - Up To 9 Typhoons Expected This Season

[hatrack]

EDIT

Beijing -- already plagued by spring sandstorms and the worst pollution in six years -- was in its 7th successive year of drought, Xinhua news agency said. Only 17 millimetres (less than an inch) of rain had fallen in the capital in the past four months, down 63 percent on the same period last year.

Xinhua said drought in the north, northeast and southwestern regions was affecting 16.3 million hectares (41 million acres) of farm land and threatening supplies of drinking water to more than 14 million people and 11.55 million livestock. Reservoirs serving Beijing, host city for the 2008 Olympics, are drying up because of the long drought. The amount of affected farmland was 36.3 percent more than the average annual area, Xinhua quoted Zhang Zhitong, an environmental official, as saying.

Floods have killed 10 people and affected about 4.5 million in central, eastern and southern regions since mid-April, with direct economic losses totalling more than 2.637 billion yuan (US$330 million).

Worse may be to come. China's summer could be hotter and stormier than normal and the country could be hit by up to nine typhoons from June, state media said on Wednesday, citing the country's top meteorologists. "From now on, local authorities should get ready for bad weather, particularly floods resulting from torrential rains, and persistent drought in other areas," the People's Daily newspaper quoted Qin Dahe, director of the China Meteorological Administration, as saying.

EDIT

http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/36344/story.htm

[NNadir]

1. This is going to make China cranky.

Let's be frank. China has more or less obtained superpower status. I personally think they could kick the doors in at the US, we are so weakened by the age of Bush.

Pressure on a superpower is not a good thing.

[phantom power]

2. It would be as easy as dumping the dollar.

About the only downside I can think of for them is that we're a big market for their manufactured goods. And they're very busy establishing other markets for those. I'm sure that's less of a barrier for them every year.