With our reliance on greenhouse-gas-spewing technology, we may face a Catch-22.
By Dan Martin Senior staff editor |
Dramatic reductions in carbon emissions may still help stave off the worst effects of climate breakdown, the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said in April. But as Matthew Bossons writes in a guest essay, the severe heat wave that gripped China in recent weeks showed just how challenging that will be to achieve. |
Bossons, a Shanghai-based Canadian journalist, traveled through some of the worst-hit areas of China at the height of the hot spell. What he witnessed seemed pulled from an apocalyptic Hollywood blockbuster: vast, withered farmlands, paralyzed cities and populations fleeing to cooler areas. |
But just as worrying was the vicious cycle of carbon emissions that ensued as rivers dried up, crippling hydroelectric power facilities and forcing China to rely even more heavily on coal — an addiction that has made it the world's largest current source of greenhouse gases. |
Dozens of coal-fired power plants were "firing on all cylinders" and beyond their designed capacity, according to Global Times, a government-controlled outlet, to make up the electricity shortfall — pumping out more carbon. |
It was an understandable move. Millions of people were sweltering in dangerous heat and needed to be able to get air-conditioning; factories and other businesses needed electricity to operate. |
But it raised a disturbing Catch-22: How can we hope to combat climate change when an extreme heat wave causes the biggest producer of greenhouse gases to spew more of them? |
China, which is also among the countries most affected by rising temperatures and sea levels, is a harbinger of what humanity faces with climate change. Its historic heat wave of 2022 hints at the difficulties for all of us that lie ahead. |
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