As drought dries up the Yangtze river, China loses hydropower | Grist
A historic drought in the southwest of China is drying up rivers,
intensifying forest fires, damaging crops, and severely curtailing
electricity in a region highly dependent on hydropower.
The Yangtze River, the third largest in the world, has dropped to
half its average water levels, affecting shipping routes, limiting drinking water supplies https://www.cnn.com/2022/08/19/china/china-drought-alert-climate-intl/index.html, causing rolling blackouts, and even exposing long-submerged Buddhist statues https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/receding-water-levels-chinas-yangtze-reveal-ancient-buddhist-statues-2022-08-20/. Some 66 rivers across 34 counties in Chongqing were dried up as of last week, Reuters reported https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/receding-water-levels-chinas-yangtze-reveal-ancient-buddhist-statues-2022-08-20/#:~:text=As%20many%20as%2066%20rivers,dubbed%20the%20%E2%80%9CSpanish%20Stonehenge%E2%80%9D..
Also last week, the province of Sichuan, which gets more than 80
percent of its energy from hydropower, cut or limited electricity to
thousands of factories in an effort to “leave power for the people.” https://apnews.com/article/china-droughts-agriculture-climate-and-environment-647a2b13e8c14dc89b6a0161437d507a Poyang Lake, the largest freshwater lake in China, is just a quarter of its normal size https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/8/19/china-issues-first-national-drought-alert-battles-to-save-crops for this time of year.
#world #environment #drought #climate crisis #global warming
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