November 18, 2007
Urumqi’s oddly clement weather continues. By now the city should be buried under a couple of feet of snow (climate stats and five day forecast), but I’m still riding around in my autumn clothing. The same thing happened last year, a late winter that then didn’t see anything like the usual amount of snowfall. If this is a longterm climate change rather than a blip, the implications for Urumqi are disturbing. It’s a desert city that depends on snowmelt from the adjacent Tien Shan for its water supply. If the snow doesn’t fall in the winter… The city’s expanding fast, with up to 1000 migrants arriving from the east every day in search of a better life, and they all need water. More than that, the vast irrigation projects that have turned the desert green are also dependent on a ready supply of water. As with much of China, imprudent extraction is causing the subterranean aquifers to drop like a stone, leading to problems with salinisation and literally pissing away a resource that is not renewable within a human time frame. The authorities are starting to recognise this, but it’s debatable how much real action is being taken to curb pollution and environmental degradation. That would inevitably lead to a slowdown in economic growth, and the CCP is terrified by the prospect of the social unrest that could generate. Postscript: an interesting essay on the CCP’s environmental record can be found here. Note that if you live in China, you may have to access it via anonymouse.

Urumqi’s oddly clement weather continues. By now the city should be buried under a couple of feet of snow (climate stats and five day forecast), but I’m still riding around in my autumn clothing. The same thing happened last year, a late winter that then didn’t see anything like the usual amount of snowfall.

If this is a longterm climate change rather than a blip, the implications for Urumqi are disturbing. It’s a desert city that depends on snowmelt from the adjacent Tien Shan for its water supply. If the snow doesn’t fall in the winter…

The city’s expanding fast, with up to 1000 migrants arriving from the east every day in search of a better life, and they all need water. More than that, the vast irrigation projects that have turned the desert green are also dependent on a ready supply of water. As with much of China, imprudent extraction is causing the subterranean aquifers to drop like a stone, leading to problems with salinisation and literally pissing away a resource that is not renewable within a human time frame.

The authorities are starting to recognise this, but it’s debatable how much real action is being taken to curb pollution and environmental degradation. That would inevitably lead to a slowdown in economic growth, and the CCP is terrified by the prospect of the social unrest that could generate.

Postscript: an interesting essay on the CCP’s environmental record can be found here. Note that if you live in China, you may have to access it via anonymouse.

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