As part of the climate change coverage, Suchul Kang & Elfatih A. B. Eltahir present an article in Nature Communications entitled “North China Plain threatened by deadly heatwaves due to climate change and irrigation“:
The North China Plain. Map: U.S. State Department.
North China Plain is the heartland of modern China. This fertile plain has experienced vast expansion of irrigated agriculture which cools surface temperature and moistens surface air, but boosts integrated measures of temperature and humidity, and hence enhances intensity of heatwaves. Here, we project based on an ensemble of high-resolution regional climate model simulations that climate change would add significantly to the anthropogenic effects of irrigation, increasing the risk from heatwaves in this region. Under the business-as-usual scenario of greenhouse gas emissions, North China Plain is likely to experience deadly heatwaves with wet-bulb temperature exceeding the threshold defining what Chinese farmers may tolerate while working outdoors. China is currently the largest contributor to the emissions of greenhouse gases, with potentially serious implications to its own population: continuation of the current pattern of global emissions may limit habitability in the most populous region, of the most populous country on Earth. …
The North China Plain (NCP; defined here as 34°N to 41°N; 113°E to 121°E, see Fig. 1), with an area of about 400 thousand square kilometers, is the largest alluvial plain in China1,2. This region, inhabited by about 400 million, is one of the most densely populated in the world.
It’s well known that President Trump has claimed climate change is a Chinese hoax, a statement with no attribution to any known fact, and in fact risible on its face. But this threat to the Chinese heartland suddenly made me wonder:
Could climate change, given the conservative elite’s refusal to take action on it, constitute a weapon?
It’s a dark, very unlikely thought. The potential collateral damage is enormous. But for a movement with a religious, and thus potentially irrational, even eschatological element to it, it’s not impossible to believe there’s at least some potential there.
