DK GreenRoots

China correspondent Stephen McDonell

The Chinese Government has described the view that climate change is not man-made as a marginal and "extreme" outlook.

According to Xie Zhenhua, a deputy director at China's powerful National Development and Reform Commission, climate change is a fact based on long-term observation in many countries.

At the annual session of China's National People's Congress, he said that those who advocate that climate change is not man-made are holding an extreme and marginal view.

He said that the majority of the world's scientists believed that climate change has been caused by burning fossil fuels.

He and other officials said that more work needed to be done to ensure that scientific data on climate change was watertight, but the world had no choice but to reduce its reliance on fossil fuels.

Mr Xie said climate change is not only something that ordinary Chinese people can feel and experience every day, but that it may soon have a huge impact on China's food security and even its economic stability.

They also stated that there is some differing of opinion on what is causing this, however that sensible policy is to recognize and begin to take steps to mitigate the risk.

"There are still two different viewpoints in the scientific field," said Xie Zhenhua, citing human activities and the scientifically scoffed-at sunspot theory.

Xie does not dispute that the climate is changing, however, and said Wednesday that the consequences of this change are alarming enough that countries should cut emissions anyway.

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Not only do the Chinese recognize the dire predicted consequences in a warming Earth, they are putting their money where their mouth is.

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A catastrophic water shortage could turn out to be a much bigger threat to mankind this century than wars, soaring food prices and the ever relentless consumption of known sources of energy. The annoying thing is either water is so abundant (in some parts of the world) that it can be used leisurely and foolishly (amusement parks, fountains, golf) or it's so scarce that you fight wars over it. Which region will be most affected? I'll tell you over the jump.

Nicholas Stern, author of the Government's Stern Review on the economics of climate change, warned several years ago that underground aquifers could run dry at the same time as melting glaciers play havoc with fresh supplies of usable water. That report, dated October 2006, (lauded by such luminaries as Joseph Stiglitz and Jeffrey Sachs) states clearly that fresh rainfall is not enough to refill the underground water tables and that water is not a renewable resource. BTW, the very same Stern later this year will publish another huge UN study - dubbed the "Stern for nature" which will attempt to put a price on global environmental damage, and suggest ways to prevent it. I can't wait.

Here's the part of Stern's telling report that really worries me:

"The glaciers on the Himalayas are retreating, and they are the sponge that holds the water back in the rainy season. We're facing the risk of extreme run-off, with water running straight into the Bay of Bengal and taking a lot of topsoil with it. A few hundred square miles of the Himalayas are the source for all the major rivers of Asia - the Ganges, the Yellow River, the Yangtze, the Mekong, Brahmaputra, Salween, and Sutlej, among others - where 3bn people live. That's almost half the world's population."