Pearl River Delta under Rising Water Threat
By Joshua S Hill
mongabay.com
August 30, 2007
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1,153 square km (445 square miles) of land surrounding the Pearl River Delta in Guangdong Province, China may be engulfed by rising sea levels by 2050, reports Chinese state media. The cities worst affected will be Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong province, alongside Zhuhai and Foshan if nothing is done to combat the problem soon.
“Climate change will negatively affect the economic development of Guangdong, which is currently one of the biggest consumers of energy and producers of greenhouse gases,” Du Raodong, an expert at the Guangdong weather centre, was quoted as saying.
Raodong attributed the threat to rising temperatures caused by greenhouse gas emissions. A 30cm rise (one foot) in sea levels could contaminate local drinking supplies with salt water. Raodong also warned that red tide — an event in which estuarine, marine or fresh water algae accumulate rapidly in the water column — will likely worsen, affecting local agricultural production.