China’s Low CO2 Climate

By Paul Homewood 

 

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2014-09/24/content_18650613.htm

 

According to China Daily, developed countries are to blame for today’s climate, because of our cumulative emissions since the industrial revolution.

Perhaps they would prefer to return to their low CO2 climate!

 

http://asianhistory.about.com/od/asianenvironmentalhistory/tp/Asias-Worst-Natural-Disasters.htm

 

http://history.cultural-china.com/en/34History7420.html

 

 

And in 1935, more Yangtze floods claimed 145,000 lives.

 

http://jimedits.com/?page_id=170

 

 

Four years later, the terrible floods of 1939 took an estimated half a million lives on the North China Plain.

 

 

Moor floods in 1954.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1954_Yangtze_River_Floods

 

Then in 1959, the Yellow River flooded, killing an estimated 2 million, according to the official International Disaster Database, making it the second worst flood since 1900. Wikipedia go on to comment:

In July 1959, the Yellow River flooded in East China. According to the Disaster Center, the flood directly killed, either through starvation from crop failure or drowning, an estimated 2 million people, while other areas were affected in other ways as well.

In 1960, an estimated 60% of agricultural land in northern China received no rain at all. The Encyclopædia Britannica yearbooks from 1958 to 1962 also reported abnormal weather, followed by droughts and floods based on Chinese government sources. This included 760 millimetres (30 in) of rain in Hong Kong across five days in June 1959, part of a pattern that hit all of Southern China.

 

Typhoons

Then there was the typhoon season of 1959, which Wiki describe:

 

The 1959 Pacific typhoon season was regarded as one of the most devastating years for Pacific typhoons on record, with China, Japan and the Philippines sustaining catastrophic losses.

 

 

Droughts

 

 

 

The history of China is littered with droughts and great famines.

The four famines of 1810, 1811, 1846, and 1849 are said to have taken a toll of not less than 45,000,000 lives.

13 million more were said to have died in the Northern Chinese Famine of 1876–1879, after a drought which started in 1875, while Droughts in North China in 1920, and between 1928 and 1930 led to more than three million deaths. 

 

 

Benefits of the Industrial Revolution

Fortunately, because of the benefits brought by the industrial revolution, the toll from these sort of weather disasters is much reduced. Better planning and infrastructure have literally saved millions of lives, and modern farming methods and transport mean that food aid can be easily diverted to where they are needed in the event of flood and drought.

 

But as we know, of course, for the Chinese Government this has very little to do with climate, and everything to do with money.