Peak Oil News and Message Boards

China has raised its drought emergency to the highest level for the first time as a dry spell spreads, leaving millions with little or no water and threatening wheat supplies, state media said Friday.

The decision to go to emergency level one was taken Thursday at meeting of the State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters, Xinhua news agency reported.

About 43 percent of the country's winter wheat supplies are at risk, after some areas have seen no rain for 100 days or more, according to state media.

The capital, Beijing, is particularly badly hit, with experts warning the city, home to 17 million people, will soon have reached the limit beyond which there will not be enough water to go around.
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China, the world’s largest wheat producer, said severe drought since November has affected nearly 43 percent of the winter wheat crop and is spreading.

Reduced soil moisture threatened about 141 million mu (9.4 million hectares) of crops in provinces including Henan, Anhui and Shaanxi, the Ministry of Agriculture said on its Web site late yesterday, citing a survey completed by Feb. 2.
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<i>And so it begins.</i>

By next year, food will be the new deal.

So if China dries up then there demand for oil dries up even more.

Reading a little more into this, its sounds a little overblown.

http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCr ... USPEK31573

Sounds like they don't water their crops because they lose money because the wheat isn't worth anything right now.

They should have plenty of extra help when the Chinese slave labors from the city don't have jobs making Barbies for little American girls because daddy doesn't have his job anymore.

cipi604 wrote:By next year, food will be the new deal.

Just quit eating!
No point to even be on the vegetarian trail. Breatherianism is the mental concept that everything is possible- including the exclusion of material intake of food as well as water.-for good!

long ag commodities...

chinese forex dollars will be used to buy grain, leading to strong food inflation...

With one and a third billion mouths to feed, any shortfall in agriculture output can be catastrophic. That there is a historic drought is not in dispute. What could be done to ameliorate its impact has yet to be seen. The Chinese are nothing if not resourceful. But even before this latest drought, the rate of desertification had been pretty amazing--whole towns swallowed up by drifting sand...

Chinese Desertification

Meanwhile Australia is on fire,

Aussie Wildfires kill 25

though it sounds like CA got a bit of relief, but they aren't out of the woods yet:

Despite much-needed rain, drought in CA still a threat

Ouch. That can't end well.

As usual the media is doing its hardest to obfuscate the growing world wide drought trend. Like the disappearing glaciers, this trend is a manifestation of climate change. I am still waiting for stories about newly viable agricultural lands coming on stream where there used to be deserts. But somehow the rain isn't redistributing itself for humanity's benefit.

dohboi wrote:With one and a third billion mouths to feed, any shortfall in agriculture output can be catastrophic. That there is a historic drought is not in dispute. What could be done to ameliorate its impact has yet to be seen. The Chinese are nothing if not resourceful. But even before this latest drought, the rate of desertification had been pretty amazing--whole towns swallowed up by drifting sand...

Chinese Desertification

Meanwhile Australia is on fire,

Aussie Wildfires kill 25

though it sounds like CA got a bit of relief, but they aren't out of the woods yet:

Despite much-needed rain, drought in CA still a threat

Basically Armageddon is headed to China you think? The doom scenario? Interesting that it really has nothing to do with Peak Oil, just human mismanagement and overpopulation. I think it would behoove everyone to not look at everything through a strictly PO prism. PO is just one of man's follies among many.

dissident wrote:As usual the media is doing its hardest to obfuscate the growing world wide drought trend. Like the disappearing glaciers, this trend is a manifestation of climate change. I am still waiting for stories about newly viable agricultural lands coming on stream where there used to be deserts. But somehow the rain isn't redistributing itself for humanity's benefit.

There is no evidence that AGW is responsible for desertification in China. This has happened before. In fact it's oscillating.

dohboi; aussie on fire

Australia total area = 768,230,000 hectares

area burnt so far = 450,000 hectares = approx. 0.06%

serial-worrier; i don't know about China but the Met. Office in Australia has stated that global warming is definately the cause of the drought in southeastern Australian states ( NSW , VIC ,SA and TAS ) and is also causing a significant increase in rainfall in the northern states ( Q , NT and the top end of WA )

this is being caused by the warming of the Indian Ocean

kiwichick wrote:serial-worrier; i don't know about China but the Met. Office in Australia has stated that global warming is definately the cause of the drought in southeastern Australian states ( NSW , VIC ,SA and TAS ) and is also causing a significant increase in rainfall in the northern states ( Q , NT and the top end of WA )

this is being caused by the warming of the Indian Ocean

Warming of the Indian Ocean is no proof of AGW. It just means its warming.

China is working hard to make coal base load power redundant. The current plan is for 200+ new nuclear power stations over the next 15 years. Unlike western nations China recognizes Fission as the low carbon alternative to base load fossil fuel plants.

Sanmen 2 Containment Dome Installed

July 9, 2015—China’s State Nuclear Power Technology Corp. said construction of the Sanmen 2 Westinghouse AP1000 being built in Zhejiang province reached a milestone this week with the installation of the containment vessel top head. The installation marks the end of general construction works for the reactor’s nuclear island. SNPTC reported last week that the polar crane used to lift the head into place had been erected.

Two AP1000s are being built at Sanmen, with another two being built at Haiyang in Shandong province. This week SNPTC reported that the first steam generator for Haiyang 2 has been lifted into place. All four Chinese AP1000s are scheduled to be in operation by 2016.