Two neighboring countries in Asia are currently experiencing extreme weather conditions which experts believe is caused by climate change.
In China, the Yangtze River, the third-longest river in the world, is drying up due to record-breaking drought. Rainfall in the Yangtze basin is around 45% lower than normal. The drop in water level has affected hydropower generation, shipping, agriculture and domestic water supplies. The river supports more than 450 million people and a third of China’s crops. The low water level has even revealed previously submerged Buddhist statues.
It can be said that China is suffering from the effects of its own doing because it is the world’s biggest emitter of greenhouse gases (GHG). Global warming, the biggest driver of climate change, is caused by too much GHG in the atmosphere. The thick layer of GHG acts like a blanket which traps the Sun’s heat warming the Earth. Most of these GHG are due to man-made activities such as the use of fossil fuels.
According to the World Resources Institute, the top three greenhouse gas emitters namely China, the European Union and the United States, contribute 41.5% of total global emissions, while the bottom 100 countries only account for only 3.6%. Collectively, the top 10 emitters account for over two-thirds of global GHG emissions.
The drought has exacerbated China’s GHG emission. Because of the low water level of Yangtze river, hydropower plants are unable to produce electricity. This means China has to rely more on coal-fired power plants which are large emitters of Carbon Dioxide, a GHG.
While China is experiencing severe drought, its neighbor Pakistan, is suffering from record monsoon rains. The flooding has inundated the country, washing away bridges, roads and crop fields. More than 1,100 have died and more than one million homes have been damaged or destroyed as of this writing. Around one third of Pakistan is underwater affecting more than 33 million, over 15% of the country’s 220 million population.
Sherry Rehman, Pakistan’s climate change minister, called the flooding a “climate-induced humanitarian disaster” of “epic proportions” and appealed for international aid. Ahsan Iqbal, planning minister, said the world owed Pakistan, which was a victim of climate change caused by the “irresponsible development of the developed world.” Thus, the world has an obligation to help the South Asian nation cope with the effects of man-made climate change.
Like Pakistan, the Philippines too is a victim climate change. Our country ranked 17th in the world as the most affected country from extreme weather events in the Global Climate Risk Index (CRI) 2021. The Institute for Economics and Peace even ranked the Philippines as the country most at risk from the climate crisis according to a report published in 2019. This is in spite of the fact that Philippine GHG emissions is just 0.48% of the global total (source: UNDP). Several super typhoons have hit our country, and more will come.