China’s wetlands shrinking due to global warming
China’s wetlands shrinking due to global warming
mongabay.com
July 16, 2007
Wetlands on China’s Qinghai-Tibet plateau have shrunk by more than 10 percent over the past 40 years, posing a threat to agriculture and river flows, according to scientists from the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Wetlands at the Yangtze’s origin contracted 29 percent over the same period.
Chinese scientists blamed climate change for the disappearing wetlands.
“The wetland plays a key role in containing water and adjusting the water volume of the rivers,” the China Daily newspaper quoted Wang Xugen, a researcher with the academy, as saying. “The shrinking of the wetlands on the plateau is closely connected with global warming.”
Wang said that “though rainfall in the region was increasing due to climate change, water flows in the rivers had not increased due to faster evaporation caused by the higher temperatures,” according to AFP.
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The new report comes three months after China said it would spend more than $2.1 billion (16.5 billion yuan) to protect and restore its highly endangered wetlands over the next five years.
Concerns over water resources are nothing new in China. Just last week, state media reported that glaciers in the western province of Xinjiang shrank 20% in 40 years, while snow lines receded by 60 meters (200 feet). Meanwhile the government estimates that roughly 300 cities in China face water shortages while untreated sewage and industrial waste pollute around 70% of China’s rivers.
Pollution was cited as a leading factor behind the probable extinction of the Baiji, the Yangtze’s famous freshwater river dolphin, earlier this year.
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