Global warming and development
Photo: AFP
With China bankrolling the U.S. budget deficits, it can provide $100 billion to other countries. I am writing with reference to Op-Ed: "Need for a clearer post-Copenhagen roadmap," by Muhammad Zamir (Dec. 20). The Copenhagen climate change conference could not produce a binding legal framework to comply because of the opposition from China which refused to allow such monitoring as an infringement on sovereignty. But China may be reminded that most developing countries including fast growing China would face greater catastrophe if the global warming becomes rampant. Most developing countries are located in the warm climatic zone and as such global warming will have devastating affects on their economies. Most of India enjoys warm weather for ten months and any global warming will lead to more evaporation in arid areas, resulting in widespread drought. Other areas will witness more rainfall, leading to devastating floods. The same applies to China. A deltaic nation like Bangladesh will face catastrophic consequences if sea level rises due to global warming. For island nations like Sri Lanka, Maldives and Indonesia, it will be even more catastrophic. Moreover, coastal cities like Mumbai and Shanghai will be threatened by rising sea level. These two cities are economic hubs of India and China and any dislocation of these two cities will have serious implications for their economies. This year, both India and China have witnessed devastating floods in some areas and droughts in others. If the global warming continues unabated, China will face catastrophic floods and droughts and its economic growth will inevitably suffer. With a billion people to feed, China cannot depend entirely on the manufacturing sector to ensure economic prosperity. It may be pointed out the heavily industrialised Soviet Union faced economic collapse when it became totally dependent on the West for food supplies because of agricultural shortfalls due to inefficient collective farming. Professor Stephen Schneider, an eminent climate scientist at Stanford University, told the whole truth when he wrote in his recent study Science As A Contact Sport: 'Developing nations unless we set up strong cooperative ventures with them to leapfrog over the old technologies will elevate the planet's concentration levels to much more dangerous heights. But with cooperation we can bring that down substantially too given political will and joint solutions.' With its trillion dollar surplus, China should be in a position to help other developing nations.
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