Global warming drying up major Chinese rivers

BEIJING - CHINESE scientists have warned that rising temperatures are draining wetlands at the head of the country's two longest rivers, choking their flow and endangering water supplies to hundreds of millions of people.

The warning occurs as millions of people along central China's flood-ravaged Huai River, a major tributary of the Yangtze River, are bracing themselves for more heavy rains this week.

Aerial photographs and satellite images had shown that wetlands on the frigid Qinghai-Tibet plateau, which feed the Yangtze and Yellow rivers, had shrunk more than 10 per cent over the past four decades, the China Daily said yesterday, citing the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), a key government think-tank.

'The wetlands at the origin of the Yangtze have suffered the most, contracting by 29 per cent,' the paper said.

CAS researcher Wang Xugen said the wetlands had a key role in regulating the flow of the rivers providing water for hundreds of millions of people and nearly half of China's farmland.

'The shrinking of the wetland on the plateau is closely connected with global warming,' the paper quoted the researcher as saying.

The drop in water flow comes despite an increase in the amount of rain in the region.
Last month, CAS warned that rising temperatures could wipe out the plateau's glaciers by the end of the century, triggering more intense droughts, sandstorms and desertification.

Meanwhile, Changchun, capital of north-east Jilin province, became the latest city to be hit by an algae outbreak, said Xinhua news agency.

The outbreak has squeezed water supplies from a reservoir feeding the city's seven million residents, Xinhua reported.

REUTERS, ASSOCIATED PRESS

Done by: Cheryl Goh (05)

i am who i am
9:10 PM

Definitions
1. Environment can refer to:
v The air, water and land on Earth which can be harmed by man’s activities
v The people and things that are around you in your life eg. the people you live and work with, the general situation you are in, the buildings you use
v The natural features of a place, for eg. its weather, the type of land it has and the types of plants that grow on it.

Due to globalization and the advancement and large usage of technologies, many parts of the world are now faced with one or more forms of environmental issues. I will be discussing on some of the major environmental problems.
Environmental problems
1.Acid Rain
2.Pollution:
v Air Pollution
v Water Pollution
v Land Pollution
3.Global Warming
4.Overpopulation
5. Deforestation

1. Acid Rain
v Acid rain: rain that contains harmful acid which can damage the environment and is caused by chemicals in the air

v Acid rain is caused by airborne acidic pollutants (mainly sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxides). These chemicals are released by certain industrial processes, and as a result, the more industrialized nations of Europe as well as the US suffer severely from acid rain.

v Human Causes of Acid Rain:

Ø Power plants that use coal as a fuel emits sulphur dioxide
Ø Automobiles produce about half of the world's nitrogen oxide.
Ø Power plants that burn fossil fuels also contribute significantly to nitrogen oxide emission.

v Natural Causes Of Acid Rain:
Ø Forest Fires
Ø Volcanic Eruptions
Ø Bacterial decomposition of vegetable matter trapped in low-lying wetlands and stagnant water, decaying animal dung and rubbish buried in landfills leads to the production of methane.
Ø Lightening: heat energy released by lightning causes nitrogen and oxygen to react to form nitrogen oxides such as nitric oxides and nitrogen dioxide

v Acid rain comes down to the earth in the form of rain, snow, hail, fog, frost, or dew. Once it reaches the ground, the acidity in the substance can do considerable damage and even destroy both natural ecosystems and man-made structures .
v For example: Acid rain reacts with metals, carbonates in marble and limestone. This will damage metal bridges and stone buildings. In India, acidic pollutants from nearby industrial plants threaten to destroy the Taj Mahal.
v Examples which shows the consequences that acid rain has on the natural ecosystems:
Ø Acid rain that falls onto rivers and lakes increases the acidity in these water bodies. Acidic waters in lakes with pH levels below 4 can kill fish and other aquatic life
Ø Acidic rainwater often leaches important nutrients from the soil.
Ø In Central and Eastern Europe, forests have been destroyed by acid rain.

2.Pollution
v Air pollution: Air that has chemicals in high concentration to harm living things or damage non-living things

v Caused by air pollutants(solid particles and poisonous gases in the air)
v Human Causes:
Ø Motor vehicle emissions are one of the leading causes of air pollution.
Ø Principal stationary pollution sources include chemical plants, coal-fired power plants, oil refineries,[6] petrochemical plants, nuclear waste disposal activity, incinerators, large livestock farms (dairy cows, pigs, poultry, etc.), PVC factories, metals production factories, plastics factories, and other heavy industry.
Ø China, United States, Russia, Mexico, and Japan are the world leaders in air pollution emissions
v Natural Causes/Natural Disasters:
Ø For example, hurricanes often involve water contamination from sewage, and petrochemical spills from ruptured boats or automobiles.
v Effects Of Air Pollution On Human Health:
Ø Causes photochemical smog which reduces visibility
Ø Sulphur dioxide/Nitrogen dioxide:
§ irritates the eyes
§ attacks the lungs causing breathing difficulties
§ bronchitis
v Effects Of Air Pollution On The Environment:
Ø Sulphur dioxide and oxides of nitrogen can cause acid rain which reduces the pH value of soil.
Ø Smog and haze can reduce the amount of sunlight received by plants to carry out photosynthesis.
Ø Kills plant and aquatic life
Ø Damage Buildings: Causes buildings and monuments to become dirty or discoloured
v Water Pollution: The introduction into fresh or ocean waters of chemical, physical, or biological material that degrades the quality of the water and affects the organisms living in it. This process ranges from simple addition of dissolved or suspended solids to discharge of the most insidious and persistent toxic pollutants (such as pesticides, heavy metals, and nondegradable, bioaccumulative, chemical compounds).
v Causes Of Water Pollution:
Ø Every year, 14 billions pounds of sewage, sludge, and garbage are dumped into the world's oceans. 19 trillion gallons of waste also enter the water annually.
Ø Water pollution affects every nation around the world. Across the world, about half of all sewage is dumped into water bodies in its original form. No efforts are made to disinfect the sewage or to remove especially harmful pollutants.
Ø Oil, such as that spilled by transport ships, has been dumped into the water since the US Civil War. Every year, between 1 and 10 billion tons of oil are spilt, killing many species and destroying the ecosystem in the area.
v Effects Of Water:
Ø Kills all the aquatic wildlife in the dumping area Eg: Dead fish, birds, dolphins, and many other animals often wind up on beaches, killed by pollutants in their habitat.
Ø Disrupts the natural food chain. Pollutants such as lead and cadmium are eaten by tiny animals. Later, these animals are consumed by fish and shellfish, and the food chain continues to be disrupted at all higher levels.
Ø Ecosystems can be severely changed or destroyed by water pollution.
Ø An example which is badly affected by water pollution is Boston Harbor. The water is filled with toxic waste and sewage, and routinely receives more waste when rainfall pushes it into the harbor.
v Land Pollution: Degradation of the Earth's land surface through misuse of the soil by poor agricultural practices, mineral exploitation, industrial waste dumping, and indiscriminate disposal of urban wastes.
v Examples Of Land Pollution:
Ø Soil PollutionSoil pollution is mainly due to chemicals in herbicides (weed killers) and pesticides (poisons which kill insects and other invertebrate pests). Litter is waste material dumped in public places such as streets, parks, picnic areas, at bus stops and near shops.
Ø Waste DisposalThe accumulation of waste threatens the health of people in residential areas. Waste decays, encourages household pests and turns urban areas into unsightly, dirty and unhealthy places to live in.

3.Global Warming
v Global Warming: a general increase in world temperatures caused by increased amounts of carbon dioxide around the earth.
v Causes Of Global Warming:
Ø Greenhouse Gases: Carbon dioxide, accounting for about 50% of all greenhouse gases. Other gases, including methane, CFCs, nitrogen oxides, and ozone, also contribute to the greenhouse effect.
Ø Overpopulation
v Effects Of Global Warming:
Ø A decrease in crop yields worldwide
Ø Areas that are currently covered by vegetation may become deserts
Ø The melting of large quantities of ice in the North Pole and South Pole. This will cause the levels of oceans to rise and flood low-lying countries such as the Netherlands.
Ø Rapid evaporation of water from the earth’s surface. When this happens carbon dioxide dissolved in the oceans with be driven into atmosphere thus further increases the greenhouse effect

4.Overpopulation
v Overpopulation: occurs when too many people living in a particular place
v The world’s population has been rising steadily over the years. The population is now threatening to reach the stage where there are simply too many people for the planet to support.
v Around 1850, the world population reached one billion. By 1987, it was at five billion and still rising rapidly.
v Overpopulation will be disastrous for the planet. Greater populations consume more resources and will result in more pollution, ruining the environment and creating or intensifying a variety of problems. Also, with the food supply limited, increases in population make shortages in many parts of the world even worse.
v Results in deforestation as the increase in world population increase the demand for land and wood products

5. Deforestation
v Deforestation: refers to the cutting or burning down of all the trees in the area
v Every year, Brazil chops down an area of forest the size of the state of Nebraska.
v In Indonesia, Zaire, Papua-New Guinea, Malaysia, Burma, the Philippines, Peru, Colombia, Bolivia, and Venezuela, rain forests have been lost.
v 50 million acres of rain forest are cut down every year. The United Nations states the figure is closer to 17 million acres. The World Wildlife Fund states that every minute, 25 to 50 acres are cut or burned to the ground.

Done By: Xin Yi

i am who i am
7:02 PM

Shouldn't we all just stop using electricity, paper, cars, buses, etc just to stop polluting Mother Earth and global warming? However, since we are unable to change and adapt from our current, modern lifestyle, we will have to compromise. Thus, now people are trying to reduce the amount of things they use by applying the three "R" rules, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. Car pools, usage of public transport, using of recyclable bags instead of plastic bags, etc are ways that people have come up with to slow down pollution and global warming. On the other hand, we will have to ponder that whether these measures are actually sufficient to stop these effects and for conditions return back to normal. Day by day, the world population increases (the amount i am not sure, should be about 1000, if i never remember wrongly from an article i have read). In the long run, the world population will increase until the amount of pollution the future people will produce will be the same as the highest amount we people in the present are producing, when we did not implement methods to reduce pollution, or maybe even beyond. Then, won't the Mother Earth be even "sicker" than now in the present. What can we actually do to prevent this problem from ever resurfacing up again in the future?

This is meant to be a thinking question. I myself have no answer to it. (lazy) However, if you(reader) have any ideas, you may want to post it in the blog. That's all folks. :)

i am who i am
9:37 PM

theme for now would be global warming until further notice... try to come up wif some qns bout global warming.... thanks!!!

i am who i am
6:20 PM