The Guardian had a dramatic picture of a river in Chongqing in China earlier in the week. My former school had a link with Chongqing and we had staff exchanges with a chance to visit this remarkable megacity.
Michael Palin visited the city when it was a fraction of its current size in his early travels.
The Jialing river is a tributary of the Yangtze, and has virtually dried up.
This Bill McKibben piece goes into more detail on the issue facing this part of China (and many other parts of the world) and the knock-on effects for hydroelectric power generation and industrial production.
It hit 113 degrees Fahrenheit in Chongqing Thursday, the highest temperature ever recorded in the country outside of desert Xinjiang. It hit 110 in Sichuan, which is a province of…80 million people, or two Californias. When it gets that hot, water just evaporates—Sichuan is 80 percent dependent on hydropower, but the reservoirs behind the great dams like Three Gorges are falling nearly as fast as Lake Mead and Lake Powell. The province has cut power day after day, including to Tesla and Toyota factories, and to many of the firms that supply the planet’s auto parts; the EV revolution is being held up by the effects of the problem it is trying to solve.Our Goldilocks planet is becoming more like Papa Bear's porridge and bed... too hot and too uncomfortable...
Image: Disgwylfa - Col and Tasha - shared under CC license
URL: https://www.flickr.com/photos/col_and_tasha/6810869864/sizes/l/
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