I believe in caution when looking at the day’s or week’s or season’s weather and seeing it as evidence for or against the issue of climate change. So I approach at least one of the claims expressed in this article with a degree of skepticism. Still, the article is important.

China has no plans to radically change its reliance on coal and other dirty fuels despite already feeling the impacts of global warming, according to a leading Chinese meteorologist. In the first official Chinese response to a stark UN report issued last week on climate change, Qin Dahe said China lacked the technology and financial resources for a wholesale conversion to cleaner energy sources.

“To replace 70 percent of China’s energy consumption really takes a lot of money,” Qin, who was one of the main authors of the report, told a press conference.

The UN report blamed human activities for global warming and warned that the Earth’s average surface temperatures could rise by between 1.1 and 6.4 degrees by 2100. China is the second-largest emitter of greenhouse gases behind the United States.

As press reports said Beijing was experiencing its warmest February on record, Qin said unseasonably warm temperatures and other weather phenomena in China looked like evidence of climate change.

“We can say this winter has been a very warm one (in Beijing). This is clearly related to the tendency of global warming,” said Qin, the head of the China Meteorological Association. Qin said a recent severe drought in southwestern China and lower water levels on the Yangtze River also bore the hallmarks of climate change

Whether this year’s warm winter weather and southwestern drought actually back up arguments of global warming I can’t say. What I can say is that it’s a pity to learn the air and water will remain as polluted as ever, and the soot stains adorning many walls, many human faces and even entire cities aren’t going away anytime soon. I have to wonder about China lacking the resources and the technology. One thing I’m convinced of is that the government can somehow find whatever funding is necessary when it truly wants to do something (like design satellite-zapping missiles or host the Olympics).

And, as usual, the same goes for the US. While we somehow can come up with endless streams of cash to support our beloved war in Iraq, there never seems to be much left over (relatively) to invest in alternative energy. As usual, it’ll only be when the problem is life-threateningly acute that they’ll somehow, as if by magic, find the money for a solution, though by then it may be too late.