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WATER POLITICS

Via Circle of Blue, an interesting mapping tool on China’s water:

Nearly 70 percent of water withdrawn in China is for agriculture, while 20 percent is withdrawn to mine, process, and consume coal. By 2020, China’s water use — driven in large part by the 30 percent expected increase in coal-fired power production — will increase dramatically.

Much of China’s food and coal production is located in its northern desert provinces, where Chinese climatologists and hydrologists say climate change is already disrupting patterns of rain and snowfall.

Click the image below to launch an interactive Google Fusion Tables map that shows water data by province from 2002 to 2010, illustrating the historical shift in available water resources and patterns of water use across the country. (Data gathered from the China Statistical Yearbook of China’s National Bureau of Statistics.)

Infographic: China’s annual available water resources and annual water use from 2002 to 2010 shows how water supply is dwindling across the country. Click image to launch the interactive Google Fusion Tables map..