Air Pollution Blamed For Chinese Drought

A severe drought threatening crops in northern China, could be a result of air pollution reducing valuable rainfall, according to a new study.

"Besides the health effects, acid rain and other problems that pollution creates, this work suggests that reducing air pollution might help ease the drought in North China," said lead researcher Yun Qian.

About 2.5 million hectares of crops are seriously affected by the drought and may face crop failure in the provinces of Liaoning, Jilin, Heilongjiang and Shanxi and in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region, the ministry of agriculture said. Autumn grain output accounts for more than 70 percent of the country's total grain output.

The drought has quickly expanded in north and northeast China since late July as a result of insufficient rainfall and continued high temperatures.

According to the study published in the Journal of Geophysical Research, air pollution in China's industrial east appears to have significantly reduced light rainfall over the past 50 years, raising the possibility that cutting pollution could ease a severe drought in the country's northeast.

The Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Civil Affairs appropriated a total of 176 million yuan ($25.7 million) Friday to help relief work in disaster-hit provinces, autonomous regions and cities, according to the website official of the Central People's Government.

The money will be used in resolving grain and drinking water difficulties in drought-afflicted Hebei, Shanxi, Heilongjiang and Gansu provinces, along with Ningxia and Xinjiang autonomous regions, they say.