The plot of the Hollywood doomsday film, 2012 – where China builds survival arks on the Tibetan Plateau – is edging closer to reality with Beijing’s latest plan for getting through a global climate catastrophe.
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Alarmed by accelerating global climate collapse, Chinese government scientists have proposed transforming the “roof of the world” into an agricultural stronghold.
It is a move that underscores Beijing’s increasing desperation in the face of looming ecological tipping points.
In a solemnly worded report published in Chinese-language journal Climate Change Research on March 4, the National Climate Centre (NCC) in Beijing warned that cascading climate breakdown – including the collapse of the Amazon rainforest, Atlantic Ocean currents and polar ice sheets – could destabilise global food systems within decades.
Their answer? According to the report, rapidly scaling up high-altitude farming on the Tibetan Plateau could enable the nation to survive the global disaster.
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“Several climate tipping elements are approaching critical thresholds. It will have profound and extensive impacts on the Earth and its inhabitants – ranging from unprecedented sea-level rises to extreme weather events that render regions uninhabitable and overwhelm existing adaptive capacities,” wrote Ma Lijuan, senior NCC engineer and lead author of the study.