In the coming decades, global warming will increase glacier melt in the Himalayan reaches of the Yangtze, diminish food production in the basin and lead to rising waters in coastal regions, said the World Wide Fund for Nature, which co-authored the report with Chinese research institutes.

"Extreme climate events such as storms and drought disasters will increase as climate change continues to alter our planet," Xu Ming, lead researcher on the report, said in a statement released Tuesday.

"If we take the right steps now, adaptation measures will pay for themselves."

Up to 400 million people live in the Yangtze River basin, which cuts a swathe through the middle of China and includes some of the nation's most productive agricultural lands.

Over the next 50 years, temperatures in the basin will climb by an average of 1.5-2.0 degrees Celsius (2.7-4.0 degrees Fahrenheit), leading to an increased number of natural disasters, the report said.

The basin has already seen a spike in flooding, heat waves and drought over the past two decades as temperatures rose by an average of 1.04 degrees Celsius between 1990 and 2005, it said.

Meanwhile, sea levels at Shanghai rose 11.5 centimetres (4.6 inches) over the last 30 years and will rise by an additional 18 centimetres by 2050, threatening the city's water supply, it said.

"Climate change will make coastal cities like Shanghai more vulnerable to sea level rises, extreme climate events, as well as natural and human-induced disasters," the report warned.

The production of crops in the basin such as corn, winter wheat and rice will fall considerably, the report said. The rice harvest alone could fall by between nine and 41 percent by the end of the century, the group warned.

The report, jointly produced by researchers from the China Academy of Sciences and other institutes, along with the WWF, was issued ahead of key climate change talks in Copenhagen next month that will seek to reach a new international accord to replace the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012.

China and the United States are the world's leading producers of greenhouse gases that lead to global warming.

earlier related report
Bangladesh PM says failure not acceptable in Copenhagen
Dhaka (AFP) Nov 11, 2009 - Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has told global leaders that poor nations will not accept failure at a crucial climate change summit next month in Copenhagen.

Hasina was speaking late Tuesday in Dhaka at a video conference with leaders of six other countries, including Gordon Brown of Britain and Kevin Rudd of Australia, as well as United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon.

"We cannot accept the failure of the Copenhagen summit," Hasina told the conference.

"The most vulnerable countries and the least developed countries are worried that their legitimate demands are being sidelined by the disagreements in climate change negotiations between the developed and developing countries."

She urged rich nations to help climate-hit, poor nations such as Bangladesh in the same way they bailed out economies damaged by the global recession.

"If the developed countries could pump trillions of dollars for reviving the world economic situation, they could surely be equally generous to save us, themselves and the world," Hasina said.

"For least developed countries like Bangladesh, Maldives, Bhutan, Nepal and other countries which are more vulnerable, we want that all the developed countries take a clear decision about the finance."

Bangladesh, one of the world's poorest nations, is one of the countries worst affected by climate change with some scientists predicting 20 million people will be displaced by 2050 because of rising sea levels.

Hasina's government wants five billion dollars immediately from rich countries to help it adapt to increasing floods, cyclones and droughts caused by climate change.

The video conference, chaired by Danish Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen, was arranged by the Copenhagen Commitment Circle, a platform of world leaders formed ahead of the summit. It is the second such event held this month.

Mexican President Felipe Calderon, Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg and Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi also participated.

Share This Article With Planet Earth

del.icio.us	Digg	Reddit
YahooMyWeb	Google	Facebook

Related Links
Water News - Science, Technology and Politics

Memory Foam Mattress Review

SPACE MEDIA NETWORK PROMOTIONS Solar Energy Solutions Tempur-Pedic Mattress Comparison ... Newsletters :: SpaceDaily :: SpaceWar :: TerraDaily :: Energy Daily XML Feeds :: Space News :: Earth News :: War News :: Solar Energy News