China will tomorrow start ramping up preparations for typhoons, dust storms and other extreme weather disasters as part of a 10-year plan to predict and prevent the worst impacts of climate change. Improved warning systems, new emergency drills and bolstered infrastructure will form the backbone of the new regulations, which are the country's most advanced measures yet to deal with natural disaster. China has a long history of devastating floods and droughts, but officials said the problems were intensifying.
"It is necessary to respond to the new situation under climate change to avoid and mitigate the losses caused by meteorological disasters," said Gao Fengtao, deputy director of the state council's legislative affairs office, as he unveiled the new policy. In recent years, he said, disasters were characterised by "sudden occurrence, wider variety, greater intensity and higher frequency in the context of global warming". Officials warned this posed a threat to human life and a huge challenge to China's sustainable development.China is taking climate change seriously: perhaps James Lovelock is correct when he states democracy is an impediment to reversing climate change.
No - Mr Lovelock is not: we don't exactly luxuriate in democracy in Canada. We get to vote in an election and then have absolutley no influence over provincial and federal decisions. ( The Mike Harris government was even sued to prevent them from implementing their common sense revolution: the plaintiffs got absolutely nowhere.) Moreover, we live in an electoral system where companies like Koch and Exxon pump millions of dollars into funding misinformation on climate change. In a sense, Canada hasn't even tried democracy.....witness the Afghan detainee scandal.
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