China’s food supplies will be greatly challenged in 30 years if global warming continues unabated, Xinhua News Agency reported today.

 

The country's population may hit 1.5 billion by 2030, which means China will have to produce an additional 100 million tons of food to feed the extra 200 million people, Zheng Guoguang, director general of the China Meteorological Administration, said today in Hohhot, capital city of Inner Mongolia.

 

In reality, he noted, about 130 million to 150 million tons more food will be needed due to supply reductions caused by bad weathers.

 

Annual output is expected to drop by five to 10 percent, Zheng said.

 

Global warming will bring more natural disasters to China, and these disasters may become large and do more damage over time, he said.

 

Sea levels in China's coastal areas are rising by an average of 2.5 millimeters every year, slightly faster than the global average.

 

In the past 100 years, China's climate has seen great changes, with most of the changes taking place in the last 50 years, Zheng said.

 

The average temperature in the first half of this year was 8.3 degree Celsius, 1.3 degrees higher than the average during the same period last year.

 

Last year was the warmest in China since 1951, with an average temperature of 10.2 degrees.

 

Temperatures in 2020 are expected to be 0.5 to 0.7 degrees higher than average temperatures 1980 and 1999.

 

By 2030, the increase is expected to be between 0.6 degrees and by 2050, they will be 1.2 degrees to two degrees higher, Zheng said.

 

Hotter weather may post great threat to the safety of drinking water.

 

When the global average temperature increases by 1.5 degrees to 2.5 degrees, about 20 percent to 30 percent of animals and plants around the world will die.

 

(Xinhua News Agency August 24, 2007)