{"id":1016444,"date":"2026-08-22T05:32:18","date_gmt":"2026-08-22T05:32:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1016444\/"},"modified":"2026-08-22T05:32:18","modified_gmt":"2026-08-22T05:32:18","slug":"in-focus-as-natural-disasters-rage-does-chinas-top-down-climate-model-provide-a-way-forward","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1016444\/","title":{"rendered":"In Focus | As natural disasters rage, does China\u2019s \u2018top-down\u2019 climate model provide a way forward?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">A punishing drought is draining Europe\u2019s great rivers, pushing the Loire, the Danube and the Rhine towards record lows.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">At the Kaub gauging station, the reference point for shipping on the Rhine \u2013 Germany\u2019s economic artery \u2013 the water level fell to 17cm (6.7 inches) this month, a low unseen since measurements began in 1880.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, wildfires are burning across southern Europe, forcing the evacuation of hundreds of thousands and producing the defining image of a <a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/economy\/china-economy\/article\/3360635\/amid-soaring-china-exports-europes-ports-are-feeling-heat?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">European summer<\/a> in which disaster has come to feel as seasonal as the holidays.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">But this is not a story unique to any one continent or hemisphere. In recent weeks, smoke from intensified Canadian wildfires drifted down the American east coast, leaving New Yorkers struggling to breathe, while China has battled a prolonged heatwave and persistent floods while bracing for what could be the strongest El Nino cycle in the past 150 years.<\/p>\n<p>The cascade of crises has revived an old question: how should societies adapt to a rapidly <a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/topics\/climate-change?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">changing climate<\/a>? It is one the world\u2019s three leading economies are answering very differently.<\/p>\n<blockquote data-qa=\"Component-StyledBlockquote\" class=\"css-1fi7v0o e1t6i3s41\"><p>The green transition is no longer something [China] needs external pressure to pursue. It\u2019s a basic national development strategy<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Jiangwen Guo, Chatham House<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A punishing drought is draining Europe\u2019s great rivers, pushing the Loire, the Danube and the Rhine towards record&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1016445,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[23],"tags":[8015,406649,406646,406651,74,2738,406645,97754,746,440,156,117,406648,406650,406647,159,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-1016444","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-american","tag-boston-university-school-of-law","tag-callendar","tag-chatham-house","tag-china","tag-connecticut","tag-danube","tag-el-nino","tag-environment","tag-europe","tag-france","tag-germany","tag-loire","tag-rhine","tag-roosevelt-institute","tag-science","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117137528766714697","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1016444","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1016444"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1016444\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1016445"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1016444"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1016444"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1016444"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}