There is surmountable evidence that Covid affected the planet Earth and its humankind in ways beyond comprehension.
The world superpowers, who were certain about dodging bigger risks to their economies, health infrastructure and standard of living, could not stand for long when nature attempted to retaliate with a single stroke.
Similarly, hosting majority of the world’s population, Asian countries suffered greatly and many of them could never recover like Sri Lanka. However, it was China that restructured its ways and recovered quickly.
The lockdowns across the globe seem to have benefited China in terms of trade.
While it contained the worst of natural threats, here is something that it finds extremely difficult to endure.
Setting a record in China as well as the world, southern parts of the country have been scorched in heat for at least 70 days continuously and there are enough reasons to blame the Climate change.
Considering the gravity of the situation, more than 260 different weather monitoring stations recorded their highest ever temperatures, with about 530,000 square miles of the territory experiencing higher temperatures touching 104°F (40°C) and above.
A Meteorologist from Yale University explains: “I can’t think of anything comparable to China’s heat wave of summer 2022 in its blend of intensity, duration, geographic extent and number of people affected”.
This has led to a severe drought in certain regions of economic importance.
Impact of the temperature rise on Rivers and beyond:
The impact of heat has strained water supplies of the region hosting 400 million people dependent on these lifelines.
Even the world’s third largest river Yangtze is beginning to dry up, consequently posing another disturbing challenge to supply chains, reduce its hydropower capacity including the world’s largest power plant called the Three Gorges Dam, navigational abilities and shipping, causing various companies involved to shut down their day-to-day operations.
It is critical to note that hydropower remains the greatest source of clean energy in China. An Analyst from China explains: “I hope the answer they draw from this is not more coal power plants, but I fear that might be where they are headed”.
For instance, certain shipping routes have been disbanded altogether. Elon Musk’s Tesla Inc. expects disruptions in its Shanghai plan, its polysilicon industry, solar panel industry, all has severed.
This is concerning by the fact that the energy demand is only increasing, about 25 percent alone in this season.
Different cities have undertaken varied measures for mitigation including turning off unnecessary lights, escalators or air conditioning.
In prosperous cities like Sichuan, Hunan etc., approximately 2.2m hectares of the land under cultivation has suffered a temporary irreparable loss of 2.73 billion yuan (or £340m) exposing people towards ornamental government support.
Food security for the world’s most populous nation could soon be in the doldrums.
Alas, it is not just Yangtze or China, global warming is acting sparsely, making it even difficult for our Climate Scientists to predict future.
Be it the economic prowess of Rhine River in Germany or the beauty of Colorado River in the United States, ironically it is the planet now that is messing with its innate resources, while humans have irresponsibly drained these out.
The Climatic models we have doubted for so long, containing inconsolable threats and disposable mechanisms of adaptation, are all becoming coherent and making sense now.
China has experienced revolutions of its kind and has evolved from Socialism to Maoism, only to unravel the probabilities of growth with gradual economic reforms.
It was absolutely fortunate to have bypassed American scrutiny all along, in the process. The fiery-eyed nation has cornered several hurdles and remains cautious of any foreign development in its vicinity, it depends how it can overcome a new threat to the difficult strides it has made so far.