China experiencing too much rain in south, major heat wave in north

This article was written by the Associated Press and was published in the Toronto Star on June 17, 2024.

A woman wearing a face cover and carrying an umbrella walks among the crowd on a hot, sunny day in Beijing on Sunday. China is being buffeted by two weather extremes, with heavy rain and flooding in parts of the south and a heat wave and potential drought in the north.

China is being buffeted by two weather extremes, with heavy rain and flooding forcing the evacuation of tens of thousands of people in the south and a heat wave prompting fears of a drought for farmers in the north.

At least one person has died in the flooding. The body of a student who fell into a swollen river in the southern city of Guilin was found two days later on Saturday, state broadcaster CCTV said in an online report. Elsewhere in the Guangxi region, heavy rains flooded homes in some villages.

To the east, landslides and flooding hit parts of Fujian province, and 36,000 people were moved, said state media. One landslide trapped a truck in Songxi county, and videos posted online by the Quanzhou government showed vehicles inundated with muddy floodwaters in a part of the historic city.

The Chinese government has issued repeated calls to step up disaster prevention and preparedness in anticipation of more severe weather events because of climate change. Violent rain and hailstorms killed seven people in eastern China’s Jiangxi province earlier this year.

Much of northern China, including the capital, Beijing, has endured high temperatures for the past week. The National Meteorological Centre has issued a heat warning, forecasting highs around 38 C for Monday in parts of Beijing and nearby areas and in the Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia regions to the west.

Hot weather was also reported in Taiwan, the self-governing island claimed by China off its east coast. The temperature reached 36.6 C in one township in Taitung county on Sunday, the island’s Central News Agency reported, citing the government weather agency.

A lack of rainfall in northern China has raised concerns about farm production this year.

A Chinese vice-premier, Liu Guozhong, called for drought prevention efforts Saturday on an inspection tour of Hebei province, which borders Beijing.

He said that water resources should be allocated scientifically and the conservation of water for farming should be strengthened, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.

He also called for helping farmers plant drought-resistant crops to firm up the foundation for the autumn grain harvest.

Author: Ray Nakano

Ray is a retired, third generation Japanese Canadian born and raised in Hamilton, Ontario. He resides in Toronto where he worked for the Ontario Government for 28 years. Ray was ordained by Thich Nhat Hanh in 2011 and practises in the Plum Village tradition, supporting sanghas in their mindfulness practice. Ray is very concerned about our climate crisis. He has been actively involved with the ClimateFast group (https://climatefast.ca) for the past 5 years. He works to bring awareness of our climate crisis to others and motivate them to take action. He has created the myclimatechange.home.blog website, for tracking climate-related news articles, reports, and organizations. He has created mobilizecanada.ca to focus on what you can do to address the climate crisis. He is always looking for opportunities to reach out to communities, politicians, and governments to communicate about our climate crisis and what we need to do. He says: “Our world is in dire straits. We have to bend the curve on our heat-trapping pollutants in the next few years if we hope to avoid the most serious impacts of human-caused global warming. Doing nothing is not an option. We must do everything we can to create a livable future for our children, our grandchildren, and all future generations.”