Rapid Climate Breakdown Presents China With "Unimiginable Challenges" - AFP

[hatrack]

BEIJING (AFP) - Shanghai, Guangzhou and other large coastal cities in China could face "unimaginable challenges" if global warming continues and the oceans keep rising, state media has said.

A report released recently by the State Oceanic Administration has warned of a rapid rise in sea levels that threatens China's densely populated east coast, the China Daily reported. "The speed is astonishing," said Lu Xuedu, the deputy director of the environmental division of the Ministry of Science and Technology. "Coastal cities including Shanghai and Guangzhou will confront unimaginable challenges if the situation deteriorates," he told the paper.

The sea level had risen by an average of 2.5 millimeters (one tenth of an inch) annually in recent years, the paper said, citing the oceanic administration's report. It predicted that over the next decade, the sea would to rise by up to 31 millimeters, threatening low-lying cities, according to the paper.

"They'll begin building dykes like the Dutch, to stop the cities from being flooded," said Yang Ailun, an expert on climate change with Greenpeace China.

EDIT

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070216/sc_afp/chinaclimatewarmingoceans_070216081935;_ylt=Aq4OgkeH99OGGB3FxvptdxNrAlMA

[halobeam]

1. If we did every single thing we could to stop CO2 emissions now...

it would take a decade for the damage to level off from what we have done already. Relocation due to climate change is inevitable for a serious amount of people already, as I understand it. We need to fix this so the worst damage doesn't happen to every area as it is predicted to.

Non action is going to cost MORE in the long run, more lives and more money. The "big guys" better understand they can't make money off of the destitute or the dead...

[pscot]

2. Unless we can find a way to reduce the population increase

of the last 60 or 70 years, it's hard to see where any meaningful change is going to come from. We've got ourselves in a very bad spot.

[Triana]

3. Population...

...the canary in the coalmine - that nobody wants to talk about - much less do anything about. Why does anyone think this can be ignored?

[gulfcoastliberal]

4. That's the problem, alrighty.

Some people think its their right (or duty) to have as many offspring as possible during the lifespans. No way can the growth rate keep going the way it has in the US, India, and China. We're not living sustainably and in total denial. I hope for a huge surprise (or the launching of massive research into carbon neutral power) that will get us out of this jam, but sure don't count on it.

[GliderGuider]

6. We are at the mercy of two genetic imperatives

The first, which is built into every reproductive species, favours excess reproduction beyond the replacement rate. In an environment where there are predators this is a survival-positive trait. When there are no predators, it's catastrophic. We have no predators except ourselves.

The second is the drive to maximize our comfort by gathering as many resources for ourselves as possible. As long as the population didn't grow and the tool use stayed limited this was also a survival-positive trait. When our brains developed we gained the ability to build tools that allowed us to dig very deeply into the resource base of our ecological niche (aka the whole freakin' planet). However, it appears that natural selection didn't have time to endow us with a corresponding sense of restraint that might have made this behaviour sustainable.

As a result the only restraints we have on either reproduction rates or resource usage comes from our intellectual analysis of the situation. And while intellect may be a very powerful tool for manipulating the outside universe, it is extremely weak when it comes to modifying our own behaviour. Especially for large aggregates of population, genetically encoded behaviour patterns tend to rule the day.

In other words, the self-destruction we are starting to apprehend is in large measure inevitable. At the very least the behaviour that's causing it is strongly supported by our genetic makeup, and genetically driven behaviour is most impervious to change.

[pscot]

7. I've been watching this train wreck approaching

for 40 years. Until recently it has been impossible to even talk about population or peak oil in polite company without being dismissed as a nuisance or a crackpot. It's been easier to get people interested in mummified space aliens being studied in secret government labs. Even now, with the crisis staring us in the eye, there is no concerted action being taken, or even proposed, that matches the scale of the problem. Locally, the mayor of Seattle is lauded for his enlightened views on energy conservation. So what's the hot political issue? Whether to put one of our collapsing freeways in a tunnel or on a viaduct. Like the band on board the Titanic, we're going to go on playing the same old tune as we sink beneath the waves.

[hogwyld]

5. what's even worse for China

is with the rising tide so to speak, you're looking at saltwater permiating their already polluted aquifers, leaving them even less to drink and irrigate with. Question for all you experts, how much CO2 do a billion people exhale in everyday life?