![]() ![]() On the contrary, President Xi Jinping wants China, the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases, to become a global leader on the climate crisis. ![]() It is not that Chinese leaders do not admit climate change is real. WMO Secretary General Petteri Taalas later said they were “ clearly linked” to global warming. Scientists at the United Nations’ World Meteorological Organization (WMO), for example, conducted a rapid attribution analysis, which found the western North America heat waves would have been “ virtually impossible” without climate change. While full analysis is needed to confirm to what degree changes to the earth’s climate have affected specific extreme weather events, many experts agree the trend is clear. ![]() That stands in stark contrast to how climate scientists and the media have responded in the West. Such associations are also seldom reported by state media, she added. “Out of caution, they basically avoid talking about it,” she said. Liu Junyan, climate and energy project leader for Greenpeace East Asia, said without the impact of climate change, “it is very difficult to imagine such extreme rainfall would occur in an inland city like Zhengzhou.”īut she said it is rare for Chinese weather and climate authorities to acknowledge a potential climate change connection in the aftermath of extreme occurrences, because such analysis requires more research and data. Henan’s water resources department went a step further, claiming rain levels recorded at some stations could only be seen “once every 5,000 years.”Ī damaged bridge following heavy rains which caused severe flooding in Gongyi in China's central Henan province on JSTR/AFP/Getty Imagesīut on Thursday, state-run newspaper the Global Times said Ren Guoyu, a chief expert at China’s National Climate Center, “dismissed the connection between heavy rain in Zhengzhou and global climate change.” Instead, he attributed the flooding to “abnormal planetary scale atmospheric circulation,” the report said. Zhengzhou’s weather station called it a “once in a thousand years” downpour. In just three days, it had 24 inches (61 centimeters) - or nearly a year’s worth - of rainfall, according to the Zhengzhou meteorological station. At one point, the provincial capital of Zhengzhou was pelted by nearly 8 inches (20 centimeters) of rain in an hour. The silence is all the more conspicuous given how much Chinese authorities have emphasized the extremeness and rarity of the weather. Scientists have been warning for years that the climate crisis would amplify extreme weather, making it deadlier and more frequent - and the latest catastrophes are seen as a timely reminder the threat could hit much closer to home than some might think.īut this week, with much of China’s central Henan province devastated by record rains, there was little reference to the broader climate crisis among Chinese officials, scientists or state media. As record heat waves hit western North America and deadly floods swept Germany, the growing risks associated with climate change have grabbed headlines, and prompted widespread discussions in the West. ![]()
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