CHINA WATCH The sea level along the coast of South China’s Guangdong Province is forecast to rise by at least 30 cm by 2050, a weather report released by Guangdong provincial weather authority has said (Chinese language link).

It means some 1,153 sq km of coastal land in the Pearl River Delta (PRD) area will be engulfed by the middle of the century, with Guangzhou, Zhuhai and Foshan worst affected.

The Chinese province of Guangdong is located in the southernmost part of the country. With its location on the South China Sea, it is a natural entry point to South China. Guangzhou has recently become the workshop of the world. In and around its satellite cities, there are more assembly lines, factories, and mass production than anywhere else in the country.

There will be large economic loss if this workshop disappears in 50 years, as companies will move out of Guangdong. But there is something more than money. Greenbang China grew up in Guangdong, and my family still lives there. Sometimes we won’t realize what kind of impact the global warming has on our life until our homeland is under the sea.

Chinadaily has more:

“Climate change will negatively affect the economic development of Guangdong, which is currently one of the biggest consumers of energy and producers of greenhouse gases,” Du Raodong, a weather expert with the Guangdong provincial weather center, told China Daily yesterday.

Du gave two key factors for Guangdong’s worsening climate situation.
“The rising temperature is a global issue. It is caused by the greenhouse effect,” he said. The second, he said, was a result of rapid urbanization.