From China Watch:
As greenhouse gas emissions erupt with the rising consumption of fossil fuels, the world’s highest plateau keeps sending alerts to the planet. This year, Tibet saw its third warm winter in the last seven years, with an average temperature of minus 3 degrees Celsius, up 1.4 degrees from the historical average of minus 4.4 degrees Celsius. A maximum rise of 9 degrees was reported in Nagqu in northern Tibet”the highest recorded since 1965, according to the regional meteorological bureau. And the temperature in the regional capital of Lhasa rose by 6 degrees this winter season.
With the lowest population density in China, at barely two persons per square kilometer, the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau is one of the areas least influenced by the Industrial Revolution that has drastically changed the world in the last two centuries. Yet this doesn’t mean the “roof of the world” is immune to the disastrous aftermath of industrialization, even though the region itself remains industrially underdeveloped. [Full Text]
Wang Jiaquan is a senior journalist with Xinhua News Agency in Beijing.
