Scary stuff about Asia - from the Independent

Ok - it's not ideal to re-start posting on this blog after a period of silence with such gloomy news......Next time I'll try to post something more upbeat on the many things happening around the world to combat climate change...But this is really a wake-up call and it needs to be publicised.

The Chinese Academy of Sciences - the country's top scientific body - has announced that the glaciers of the Tibetan plateau are vanishing so fast that they will be reduced by 50 per cent every decade, the Independent reported today. The glaciers have been receding over the past four decades, as the world has gradually warmed up, but the process has now accelerated alarmingly.

The vast environmental changes brought about by the process will increase droughts and sandstorms over the rest of the country, and devastate many of the world's greatest rivers.

Prof Dong Guangrong, speaking for the academy - after a study analysing data from 680 weather stations scattered across the country - said that the rising temperatures would thaw out the tundra of the plateau, turning it into desert. He added: "The melting glaciers will ultimately trigger more droughts, expand desertification and increase sand storms." The water running off the plateau is increasing soil erosion and so allowing the deserts to spread.

Sandstorms, blowing in from the degraded land, are already plaguing the country. So far this year, 13 of them have hit northern China, including Beijing. Three weeks ago one storm swept across an eighth of the vast country and even reached Korea and Japan. On the way, it dumped a mind-boggling 336,000 tons of dust on the capital, causing dangerous air pollution.

Perhaps worst of all, the melting threatens to disrupt water supplies over much of Asia. Many of the continent's greatest rivers - including the Yangtze, the Indus, the Ganges, the Brahmaputra, the Mekong and the Yellow River - rise on the plateau.

In China alone, 300 million people depend on water from the glaciers for their survival. Yet the plateau is drying up, threatening to escalate an already dire situation across the country. Already 400 cities are short of water; in 100 of them - including Beijing - the shortages are becoming critical.

Even hopes that the melting glaciers might provide a temporary respite, by increasing the amount of water flowing off the plateau - have been dashed. For most of the water is evaporating before it reaches the people that need it - again because of the rising temperatures brought by global warning.

Comments now allowed

From now onwards you can comment on this blog. I had so far not allowed comments because I was afraid it would create too much work for me. But given the traffic at the moment is limited (I am not doing much to publicise the blog anyway) I will allow them, to see how it goes.

Am I dreaming or am I awake?

This morning I woke up to the sound of George W. Bush on the radio urging his fellow countrymen and women to.....yes......save energy!

Then, I went to the door and picked up my copy of the Financial Times (subscription only) and what do I read? Sadad Al-Husseini, former head of exploration at Saudi Aramco, the world's largest oil producer, saying that "the best alternative energy is energy efficiency".

And he goes even further:"There is too much wastage with energy. There are too many cars that are far bigger than what they need to be. In the home, there are often heating and air conditioners on unnecessarily"

And what's more, he added that predictions of oil demand reaching 120 million barrels a day in 20 years, 40% up from now, are "nonsense" - as there simply isn't enough oil.

"We don't have to invest in new technologies or look for new ways to save energy, they are already in existence - they just need to be promoted more".

Then apparently the Group of 8 asked the International Energy Agency to do further research on energy efficiency and climate change and report back ahead of a meeting next month.

The problem, as the FT points out, is that yes, right, Bush may be now panicking and telling people perhaps those environmentalists were right in going on and on about energy efficiency. But then, his administration has just passed new fuel efficiency standards for cars for 2008-2011 that are simply not good enough for getting better cars on the market - or at least as good as those sold elsewhere in the world.

What am I going to write in my blog now? I've been outstaged!


energy
environment

reason for silence...

To those who are reading my blog - I apologise for being quiet for so long. The problem is that I am currently organising an international relocation - we are leaving the US to return to Europe. I will probably continue to maintain the blog, but with a once or twice a month frequency, as I expect to be working full time again (in the US I was not working, so I had lots of time for blogging, which I may not have in the future!). I may also decide to change the focus slightly, but I am still trying to decide what to do....
Thanks for your patience, and if anybody has views on how to make this blog more interesting, please email me!!