14 DAY TRIAL // Large surfaces in China are subjected to natural disasters caused by global warming every year, statistics show. Most of them occur because authorities have little to no modern equipments and technologies with which to detect or prevent them. By 2050, predictions advise that a significant percentage of China's 1.3 billion population will be without basic sustenance.
More than 23 percent of agricultural productions could be lost to climate change effects, such as shortage of water, erosion of soil and other factors, by 2050, experts say. Extreme weather or periods of intense drought will limit arable land severely. Already, in the northern regions of the country, cultures are being decimated by chilly temperatures in the early spring seasons, where, before, crops were subjected to moderate temperature.
The plants came to adapt to their environment over thousands of years, so it’s less likely they could be genetically engineered to such a scale that famine will be avoided in 30 to 40 years. Like other countries, few of China's food producing regions are threatened by reoccurring disasters, caused in part by climate change, as well as by specific regional factors. But even one of the largest countries in the world could not afford to lose over 50 million hectares of soil to floods, droughts or severe storms.
Greenhouse gases (GHG) have been identified as the primary source of these anomalies in weather patterns, with climatologists arguing that the changes they induce in the atmosphere could even cause acid rains to fall on crops, rendering them useless. Chinese experts say that ecological agriculture could be a possible answer, seeing how old methods use chemicals and fossil fuels, which can severely deteriorate the soils.
International support for developing countries is fairly limited in comparison to their needs, and China is no exception. Modern tools to help manage disastrous situations are required if the country is to advert the risk of its population starving over the next decade. Reducing the number of coal-powered electrical plants could also stall for some more time.