Songhee Chang

Ms. G. Buijsman / Mr. N. Parsons

Gr 9 Science
January 8th 2015
Global Warming In China
Throughout centuries the Earth had changed for both the good and the bad. One of
the most major changes is Global warming. Global Warming refers to the raise of average
global temperatures around the Earth as the result of greenhouse effect. Over the last
century human activities particularly the burning of fossil fuels have released a great
amount of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. These
greenhouse gases are currently trapped in the earths atmosphere making the earth
warmer than it was a few centuries ago (What is Global Warming). In the diagram below
you will be able to see a visual representation and the comparison of how these greenhouse
gases are trapped in the Earths atmosphere. The first diagram to the left represents how
the reflected sunlight has easy access to entering and exiting Earth. However on the
diagram to the right, the greenhouse gases can be seen. This diagram represents the
increase in greenhouse gases and how the greenhouse gases causes a reduction in the
outgoing radiation. Allowing heat energy to increase on Earth and soon leading to warming
the climate system (Global climate change). If the greenhouse gases trap more of the
reflected sunlight from the Sun, it can lead to serious issues such as ice melting and sea
levels rising.

Global Warming is known as an international problem due to the fact that the ice from
colder regions such as Antarctica or the Arctic are melting because of the overheating (also
known as , making the sea level rise 1.0 mm to 2.0 mm a year in the 21st century. The
climate change happened due to global warming. Global warming has many negative
impacts to almost all areas around the world from deserted islands to crowded cities and
so far China has been one of the top ten countries in the world to both experience and
suffer from global warming. Harmful damages in many factors brought by this climate
change in China drives this piece of writing to discuss further about the topic.
In China there are many negative outcomes brought by Global warming to both the
environment and the citizens living there. According to WWF (World Wide Fund for
Nature, an non-governmental organization that works on issues regarding conservation),

the Frost period in Northern China had decreased in time by 10 days because of Global
Warming. There are other outcomes that global warming had done to Chinas environment
and citizens health. It was once stated by David Fogarty (A Singaporean Climate Change
Correspondent) that,
China's carbon emissions could be nearly 20 percent higher than
previously thought, a new analysis of official Chinese data showed on Sunday, suggesting
the pace of global climate change could be even faster than currently predicted. This so far
is one of the worst outcomes for the future of Chinas environment and the citizens.
Global warming is a topic that many scientists have argued and are still arguing
about. Some scientists have believed the fact that global warming was created due to
human activities, however there are others who rejected the idea of humans fault. Those
scientists who have rejected the idea of humans starting global warming have said that it
was a natural process that the Earth itself has been going through since the planet was
created and since the Earth has been through lots of climate changes throughout the past,
there was nothing to worry about. However Global Warming was scientifically proven to be
started by human beings and human activities. It has been claimed by NASA, that human
activities, such as the burning of fossil fuel and deforestation to support agriculture, are
releasing more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. It has been stated that when we
(humans) mine coal and extract coal from the Earths crust, then burn these for the use of
fossil fuels for transportation, heating, cooking and many others, we as human beings are
rapidly producing more carbon dioxide that soon will be released into the atmosphere. By
clearing the forests in return of space for agriculture, we (humans) are transferring carbon
from the living biomass such as trees and other living plants to the atmosphere. This is the
result to why human beings have started the whole global warming issue. This fact given by
NASA is supported by the study done by the police maker of the IPCC fifth assessment
report. This finding is not only supported by NASA but the HongKong Government as well.
In the diagram below you will be able to observe the 95% probability that global warming
was caused by humans (Global Climate Change).

Global warming can bring harmful impacts to the life of people in China. One of the
factors that had the most impact is Chinas Environment. Firstly in terms of the agriculture
and the life of the livestock breeding, climate change brought severe damages to crops and
the livestock breeding. These damages mostly caused by long droughts and high
temperatures in some parts of the country. The future impact of global warming and
climate change to Chinas agriculture and livestock breeding is the drop of three major
crops such as wheat, paddy rice and corn, which changes the quality and the structure of
the soil that later affects the acceleration of the pest and other insects that live in the soil.
Secondly the impact on the forestry and other natural ecosystems can also be extremely
severe. Global warming and climate change can damage the biodiversity in China due to the
significant altars of the special distribution patterns of permafrost on the Shanghai tibet
plateau. It may also increase the fragility of the ecosystems and increase the frequency of
forest fires and fire vulnerable areas. Lastly, Global Warming will also impact the
distribution of Water Resources all over China. Over the past two decades the amount of
water in some areas in China (Southern area) have been visibly reduced by the overheating
weather. However in other areas in China (Northern area) have experienced terrible floods
due to the melting of the glaciers in China. Therefore the water distribution is not equal, it
is majorly different (Climate change impacts in China).
In order to decrease the effect of global warming, the Chinese government has set
up policies and strategies for citizens to follow. Some of these strategies are controlling the
greenhouse gas emissions through reinforcing industrial policies concerning the building
materials and chemicals used, enhancing the capacity of adaptation to the climate change
effects by improving the multi-disaster monitoring and early warning mechanisms and
most importantly raising awareness through publicity such as advertisements, tv-shows
and many other entertainment sources (White Paper: Chinas Policies and Actions on
Climate Change).
In conclusion China is in the crucial period of experiencing this major problem
known as Global warming, due to the fact that they are going through the industrialisation
and urbanisation. However, the Chinese government is aware of this problem and keeps up
developing new ideas and techniques to slow down the affect of Global warming in the
country. These strategies developed by the Chinese government may help China as the
country itself, as well as other countries that are experiencing the same can be helped by
following these techniques and ideas. Therefore we can slow down global warming in many
different places around the world in many different ways.

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