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Climate Change Sucks Water from China's Two Longest Rivers
China View/Xinhua ^ | July 15, 2007 | China View/Xinhua

Posted on 07/15/2007 2:07:45 PM PDT by JACKRUSSELL

BEIJING, July 15 (Xinhua) -- Climate change linked to the contraction of wetlands at the source of China's two longest rivers, the Yangtze and the Yellow River, has reduced the volume of water flowing in the rivers, said Chinese scientists.

Scientists from the Institute of Mountain Hazards and Environment under the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) studied changes over the past 40 years to the wetlands on the cold Qinghai-Tibet Plateau in west China where the two rivers have their source.

Analyzing aerial photos and satellite remote sensing figures, they found that the wetlands on the plateau have shrunk more than 10 percent over the past four decades. The wetlands at the origin of the Yangtze River suffered the most, contracting by 29 percent.

In addition, about 17.5 percent of the small lakes at the source of the Yangtze River have dried up, said the scientists.

"The wetland plays a key role in containing water and adjusting the water volume of the rivers," said Wang Xugen, a researcher with the Institute of Mountain Hazards and Environment.

"The shrinking of the wetland on the plateau is closely connected with global warming," Wang said, adding that -- even though rainfall has increased in the region -- the contraction of the wetland has reduced the flow of the Yangtze and Yellow rivers.

Figures provided by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) weather station at the head of the Yangtze River showed that annual rainfall at the source of the Yangtze River increased from 260 mm during 1991-2000 to 323 mm in the period 2001-2006.

"But the increased rainfall didn't lead to more water flow in the rivers because the evaporation was so fast as a result of global warming," said Li Shijie, a researcher with the Nanjing Institute of Geography and Limnology under the CAS.

Another WWF study showed that global warming has caused glaciers to shrink, frozen earth to melt, grasslands to turn yellow and rivers to dry up in Tibet.

The Qinghai-Tibet Plateau used to boast 36,000 glaciers covering an area of 50,000 sq km which feed several of the major rivers in China and Southeast Asia. In the past 100 years, the area of these glaciers has shrunk by 30 percent.

The scientists called for more support for ecological research on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and better protection of the unique and vulnerable environment.


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: china; chinapollution; climatechange; environmment; water
Wrong......all of the water in the rivers in China has been replaced by pollution.

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1 posted on 07/15/2007 2:07:49 PM PDT by JACKRUSSELL
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To: JACKRUSSELL
Climate change?!? More like complete and total environmental collapse! Just look at the filth hovering over their nation...


2 posted on 07/15/2007 2:12:37 PM PDT by Caipirabob (Communists... Socialists... Democrats...Traitors... Who can tell the difference?)
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To: JACKRUSSELL

...agreed. It’s not “climate change.” The new manufacturers have sucked much of the water out of those rivers and put contaminants back into them.

Here’s another tidbit. Well over half of the businesses in China are owned by the state (~ 150,000). The contradictory propaganda we’ve been hearing for decades was and is cover for our free traitors. They fund the military buildups of nations antagonistic against our own.


3 posted on 07/15/2007 2:12:58 PM PDT by familyop
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To: JACKRUSSELL

Is this china’s new strategy? Blame their environmental screwups on ‘climate change’ so they not only get a pass from the western envirowhackos, but also give those whackos fuel to demand ‘climate change reform’ against the west???


4 posted on 07/15/2007 2:13:14 PM PDT by flashbunny (<--- Free Anti-Rino graphics! See Rudy the Rino get exposed as a liberal with his own words!)
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To: JACKRUSSELL

“pollution” and “environmental degredation” don’t exist anymore

there’s only “climate change”

how stupid of the press, globally


5 posted on 07/15/2007 2:16:25 PM PDT by samtheman
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To: JACKRUSSELL
It certainly couldn’t be the result of this “Three Gorges Dam” that they’re building.
6 posted on 07/15/2007 2:17:42 PM PDT by Gay State Conservative (If martyrdom is so cool,why does Osama Obama go to such great lengths to avoid it?)
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To: JACKRUSSELL

Where’s the BS meter for this one?


7 posted on 07/15/2007 2:20:38 PM PDT by onedoug
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To: Gay State Conservative
It certainly couldn’t be the result of this “Three Gorges Dam” that they’re building.

I was thinking an algore canoeing photo-op...

8 posted on 07/15/2007 3:06:13 PM PDT by Unruly Human
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To: JACKRUSSELL

You are correct. All the water in China is seriously polluted.


9 posted on 07/15/2007 3:16:55 PM PDT by BJungNan
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To: JACKRUSSELL

I don’t see no crying Indian.


10 posted on 07/15/2007 4:59:32 PM PDT by jwh_Denver (In the Rise and Fall of United States I hope the Fall part is more than one chapter.)
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To: All

Wonder where that 150 tons of evian water came from and
wound up? LOL


11 posted on 07/15/2007 5:13:05 PM PDT by bugs_dallas
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To: JACKRUSSELL

China, approximately the size of the US, is being turned into a gigantic cesspool. What they are doing to their lakes and rivers is what we were doing to ours not so long ago.

http://sports.espn.go.com/outdoors/hunting/columns/story?columnist=swan_james&page=g_col_swan_det_river


12 posted on 07/17/2007 6:32:26 AM PDT by chessplayer
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