Climate Change Adaptation in Chinese Cities

Climate Change Adaptation in Chinese Cities
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Climate Change Adaptation in Chinese Cities
Introduction
The major effects of climate change are widespread across the globe affecting human beings, vegetation and other living things that are necessary for life balances. I chose to discuss the topic because it is a global problem that requires urgent interventions to prevent further damages and kickstart the recovery process. It is an interesting topic because it requires interdisciplinary interventions hence requiring various professions to work together to minimize the impacts. These effects are caused by pollution of waters, land, and air and are highly illustrated in the rising atmospheric temperatures that are responsible for thermal expansions in oceans, melting of ice and snow, uncertainties in weather patterns and influx in fresh waters creating tragic events that require humans to develop adaptation measures for survival.
Background Information
The main cause of this problem is emissions from motor exhaust gases. The globe has heavily invested in using fossil fuel for power and industrialization for development purposes, causing pollution. While the development activities persist, the level of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere will accumulate making the climate change persist. These gases include nitrogen dioxide, carbon dioxide, methane, and water vapor. These gases create a greenhouse effect by trapping the heat that would be typically radiated back to the atmosphere hence increased temperatures leading to global warming. Global warming affects everyone equally and does not discriminate against race, religion or political affiliation. Global warming is manifested by changes in precipitation patterns, melting glaciers and reduction in snow caps leading to flooding and drought, which is as a result of increased temperatures and reduced rainfall. The history of the problem is related to China such that, over the years, China has surpassed the U.S in the emission of greenhouse gases and has become the greatest emitter of carbon dioxide since 2007 (Eberhardt, 2015). This is due to the growing economy, which is associated with industrial activities.
Adaptation Measures
Adaptation against climate change is the process by which communities strive to make themselves better suited to cope with the problems associated with the unfavorable conditions that are as a result of global warming. These measures are necessary to help communities, individuals, natural systems and organizations face the consequences of global warming since they cannot be avoided (FAO, 2018). These measures involve taking concrete practices to counterattack the climate influences, reduce vulnerabilities in the community, protect life forms and enhance the resilience of the economy. The adaptation measure can be gradual changes involving various steps that take the time or bigger transformations, resulting in rapid changes.
The responsibility of adaptation is shared across nations, households, and businesses where each of these has a role to play. Businesses and households are best positioned in making decisions regarding adaptations to reduce the risks it poses to their households and assets. Nevertheless, conserving measures are neglected because air, water, and the environment are all common aspects that everyone is entitled to without a sense of obligation towards conservation (FAO, 2018). If not checked, climate change will have a wide range of impacts on the socioeconomic and environmental resources such as waters, agriculture, which affects the global food security and leads to an increase in disasters such as droughts and floods.
Through scientific research, different scholars unanimously concurred that large, intact and healthy ecosystems are well suited to withstand climate change (FAO, 2018). Additionally, greatly diverse ecosystems are likely to be more resilient in facing radical changes in the environment. The green vegetation acts like carbon sinks that uptakes the carbon in the atmosphere and incorporate it in their tissues to make their food. Therefore, they have recommended that maintaining the ecosystems strengthens, extends and refines the protected area networks, in order to maintain large green habitats.
The ecosystems are damaged due to industrialization, settlement and urbanization hence requiring restoration measures to increase the vegetation cover around the cities in China through agroforestry and afforestation. The increased vegetation cover can increase the surface area for carbon sinks. Additionally, restoration of inland waters in the cities can equally play a role in adaptations of climate change. The plants that survive under the water in rivers, oceans and deep seas use dissolved carbon dioxide to photosynthesize (FAO, 2018). Therefore, governments should impose policies and legislation against dumping litter in rivers to prevent pollution. The polluted water kills the life forms in them, and the effects are the same for the plants and animals exposed to the runoffs. Moreover, restoration should also involve the removal of invasive plants such as hyacinths in water bodies in order to conserve the water. Directing untreated sewage and home refuse water containing detergents is a result of the occurrence of these invasive species.
The Chinese government, however, has joined in the measures of mitigating against global warming together with other nations who are members of the United Nations. The government together with private companies, NGOs, individuals, and social movements are advocating for “green” and “low carbon” lifestyles (FAO, 2018). They intervened to improve lives and has recommended various adaptation measures that address the issue of climate change which has been applied and worked successfu...