By Thomas Scott-Bell
Those waking up in China’s northern provinces on March 15 would have been forgiven for thinking they’d been transported to a completely different planet. Their cities were engulfed in thick orange smog, the likes of which had not been seen for a decade. Brought on by severe sandstorms from neighboring Mongolia, according to the National Meteorological Center, the epic storms brought traffic, flights and even schools to a close as people tried to deal with the hazardous conditions.
In downtown Beijing, the average concentration of dangerous airborne PM10 particles, fine particles with a diameter of 10 micrometers, topped 8,000 micrograms per cubic meter, far above the recommended exposure limit. Levels of PM2.5, which is inhalable and one of the most harmful air pollutants, rose to 600 micrograms in many parts of the city. The freakish storm covered nearly an eighth of China’s territory, and continued to cause problems three days later.
Extreme events: As the dust finally settles, quite literally in some cities, the inquest into why the storms were so severe and long-lasting has begun. Zhou Bing, chief expert at the China Meteorological Administration’s National Climate Center, said strong winds and a dry winter contributed to the sandstorm’s severity. Like most recent instances of extreme weather, Zhou noted that “rising temperatures” played a key role in the storm’s ferocity.
It follows a pattern of rising extreme weather events that scientists say are occurring more frequently and severely than ever before. This year was only three months in when instances of extreme weather already occurred in the United States, Europe, and now China. In 2020, forest fires, floods and droughts occurred with frightening regularity.
Fundamental to this increase, according to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), has been the significant rise in global temperatures, with 2020 confirmed as the second warmest on record by American scientific agency the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Seven of the world’s warmest years have now occurred since 2014, according to the agency, with last year’s coming despite the world’s industrial output falling to record lows due to the novel coronavirus pandemic.
The damage caused by these bouts of extreme weather has, as the WMO stated in its latest annual report, become more severe, accounting for high death tolls and economic damage.
Floods in China last year caused 279 deaths and various natural disasters incurred 370.2 billion yuan ($56.7 billion) in economic losses, while droughts in Brazil were responsible for agricultural losses of almost $3 billion. Australia’s bushfires, some of the largest in its history, decimated over 8 million hectares, resulting in 25 human deaths and 500 million animal fatalities as of January 8, 2020.
Given the strong link between rising temperatures and extreme weather events, scientists are asking governments worldwide to make an immediate and concerted effort to reduce their carbon emissions, encouraging them to set strict targets.
China has taken on greater responsibility to lower its emissions. Last year it announced it will become carbon neutral by 2060, a move which climate-change watcher Climate Action Tracker believes could lower global warming projections by around 0.2 to 0.3 degree Celsius—the biggest single reduction ever estimated by it.
To do this, the authorities have initiated a radical overhaul in key areas, including how the country produces energy. Years of investment have turned China into a leader in renewable energy technologies, including solar panels and wind turbines. China’s renewable energy capacity now makes up nearly 30 percent of the world’s total, while it plans to increase its share of non-fossil fuel energy to 25 percent by 2030.
–The Daily Mail-Beijing Review News Exchange Item
