2023-07-22 11:07:25
China is hard hit by global warming. The country’s weather services warn the population almost daily once morest temperatures approaching 40°C in certain regions. A national record was broken on Sunday with 52.2°C in Xinjiang. It is however difficult to perceive a real concern of the population.
In the Longjing region (Zhejiang province), tea is grown, a plant vulnerable to high heat. “The harvest was worse than in other years. The drop was significant: I picked 20% less tea this spring,” said Mr. Zhao, a farmer, on the microphone of the RTS’s Tout un monde program.
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This lower harvest is a direct consequence of last summer’s exceptional heat wave. In this region of the Yangtze basin in eastern China, the mercury repeatedly crossed the 40-degree threshold.
“The heat? It’s the worst. If it’s too hot, the plant will dry out. There, we flirt with 40°C. The sun may burn the tea. It may be necessary to cover the plants, water more … And then prune the damaged leaves. But if it’s too hot, the plant will not produce young shoots, “continues Mr. Zhao.
“I’m not worried”
Below, in the village, Dai Zhongqing deplores a surplus of work. From now on, it is necessary to water the plants generously in summer. If he admits to being more tired, he is not overly afraid of global warming in China: “I am not worried. Well, not much. It should not change much. The water flows in abundance in the river. If it were to be constantly hot in summer, we will adapt. We will pump more to water.
This detachment is shared by her neighbour. Sitting in her kitchen, cooled by a large air conditioner, Ms. Zhao remains unmoved by the mention of global warming in China. “This subject is too vast, too abstract for us, simple and ordinary people. We do not think regarding problems whose control escapes us. And then, as tea growers, it affects our income little. Economic laws are respected: anything rare is more expensive, a smaller harvest therefore generates higher selling prices. Finally, we find ourselves there. “
This indifference is expressed time and time once more. Many seem insensitive to climate change. Many people defer to the authorities.
Carbon neutrality by 2060
So what is the Chinese power doing in the fight once morest climate change? On the one hand, there is a voluntarist discourse, with the promise of achieving carbon neutrality by 2060. But this objective has no real roadmap.
Admittedly, Beijing is developing renewables at high speed – hundreds of thousands of hectares of solar panels and wind farms have been deployed – but coal still accounts for nearly 60% of the country’s total energy production and many thermal power stations continue to come out of the ground.
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Obtain public support
The government’s strategy is ambiguous and the NGOs are getting impatient, because time is running out. Li Shuo, environmental policy specialist at Greenpeace China, calls for an awakening of consciences: “Solving climate change is a complex challenge. It will require significant systematic efforts over a very long time…”
And to continue: “We need the participation and cooperation of the public. But the sensitivity of the population to this problem is still lacking in China. With the intensification of extreme phenomena such as the heat wave which is currently hitting the country once more, I wonder if we might not finally see the long-awaited general awakening. “
Li Shuo believes that it will be impossible to achieve the “ambitious objective” of the authorities, namely carbon neutrality within thirty years, without the “active involvement” of the population.
Keep up the pressure on the Communist Party
In the absence of public demands, continuous media coverage and militant actions, or almost (read framed), the Chinese remain little exposed to the climate issue. Yet they physically feel the global warming of their country. For the time being, the temperatures remain tolerable. No comparison with air pollution, a popular source of frustration in the 2010s.
The Chinese were then suffocating under a toxic smog nicknamed “airpocalypse”. The discontent had prompted the Communist Party to react. “He acted quickly when the problem began to focus all the attention of the public by generating a lot of discontent. The government’s response was so rapid, so ambitious that air pollution decreased at a rate that surprised everyone in the environmental world,” said Li Shuo.
And to add: “But now that the pollution has been reduced to less exceptional rates and that it is no longer as visible, the momentum launched is losing momentum when we are only halfway. Relaxation awaits… The risk is to allow ourselves to be distracted from the environmental efforts that still have to be made. “
Michael Peuker/rehearsal
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