Deputy director of the State Climate Center of the China Meteorological Bureau Luo Yong said yesterday that in the next 30 years, tremendous changes will take place in global climate. The climate change will in turn affect China's food production. If we exclude factors such as the introduction of improved crop strains and technology innovation, production of China's three major crops, namely wheat, corn, and rice, will drop.

At the third International Symposium on Climate System and Climate Change organized by the China Meteorological Bureau, Luo said that as global temperature rises, many crops will shift northwards, pest disasters will increase, and more money will be put into agriculture.

The climate change will also affect the distribution of China's water resources. Since the 1990s, most northern regions in China have encountered droughts while the southern regions have floods. By 2010, experts predict, most droughts will occur in China¡¯s southern regions while the north will have floods.

Over the past century, global warming has caused serious consequences to China's ecological system. The sea altitude has risen, glaciers and frozen soils have begun to melt, and the varieties of plants and animals become smaller. In addition, extreme weathers such as heat, torrential rain, drought, El Nino weather, and forest fire have also occurred more frequently than before.

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