On Sunday December 6, groups of cyclists around the world rode their bicycles to draw attention to the climate talks starting that day in Copenhagen. The rides were part of Ride Planet Earth, a project by Australian Kim Nguyen, who has been riding from Brisbane, Australia to Copenhagen since August 2008.

Jesse Rodenbiker, organizer of the Kunming ride, tells us more in the video below.



Video by Wild Grass

This Sunday, December 6, Kunming will be one of many cities around the world where people will ride bicycles to show their solidarity with the environmental movement in the runup to global climate change summit in Copenhagen, Denmark, which begins the following day.

The Kunming ride will leave Kunming Stadium at 1:00 Sunday afternoon. It has been organized by Kunming resident Jesse Rodenbiker as part of Ride Planet Earth, a project by Australian Kim Nguyen, who has been riding from Brisbane, Australia to Copenhagen since August 2008. Nguyen passed through Kunming in April of this year.

The ride will be roughly 35 kilometers of essentially flat road. Participants will head out westwards along Renmin Xi Lu, then turn southwards toward Dianchi Lake, before crossing a causeway to the Haigeng area and joining Dianchi Lu to head back into town. The route returns riders to Kunming Stadium after roughly 2.5 hours. Google Earth users can download a KMZ file here.

In addition to the Kunming ride, there will be Ride Planet Earth events on Sunday in Melbourne, Ho Chi Minh City, Shanghai, Manila, Belgrade, Barcelona, London, Milan, Paris, New York City, Cairo and other major cities around the world.

Riders interested in participating are encouraged to bring their own bikes and helmets. If you don't have a bicycle, there will be a limited number available on loan.

Kunming's notoriously dreary rainy season was much shorter than usual this year, which translated to a greater number of sunny, blue-sky days. Few complained about the extra pleasant days at the time, but it appears the consequences are around the corner, according to a Dushi Shibao report.

According to the Yunnan Provincial Meteorological Bureau, from January 1 to November 15 of this year, average rainfall totaled 843.3 millimeters, or 233.5 millimeters less than the same period last year. It is the lowest average rainfall for the province on record.

Provincial meteorological officials speaking to local media yesterday said that Yunnan was in a state of drought. Furthermore, they said, although the current cold weather has reduced the chances of wildfires, the recent precipitation is nowhere near what is needed to bring the province out of drought.

In addition to less precipitation, this year has been warmer, with the average temperature across the province reaching 25.1 Celsius (77.1 Fahrenheit), 1.5 degrees higher than in 2008 – this is also a new record.

Due to the insufficient amount of water stored in reservoirs throughout the province, the period leading up to the rainy season in late spring next year is expected to be difficult for much of the province. Officials noted that although Kunming's Yunlong and Songhuaba reservoirs were lower than usual, city residents were in no danger of a water shortage, at least in 2010.

With regard to the current cold weather covering the province, a bureau spokesperson said that from tomorrow through Sunday, the province will experience another noticeable drop in temperatures. During this period, rain, sleet and snow are expected to fall upon much of the province, including Kunming.

The glaciers of Yulong Snow Mountain (玉龙雪山), one of Lijiang's top tourist attractions and a major source of water for the region, are disappearing quickly due to global warming, according to information released by the Frigid and Arid Zone Environment and Engineering Institute of the China Academy of Sciences.

Between 1982 and 2002, Yulong Snow Mountain's largest glacier, Baishui Number One Glacier, receded 250 meters. The glacier and other glaciers on the mountain also became thinner and have been accumulating less snow, the institute said. The above photos compare the mountain several years ago (top) with how it appeared this past Sunday.

Yulong Snow Mountain is a mountain massif, or small mountain range, which is seated 25 kilometers north of Lijiang's old town and forms the southern side of Tiger Leaping Gorge, one of the world's deepest gorges. It spans 13 kilometers from east to west and is home to 19 glaciers covering a total area of 11.6 square kilometers.

Yulong's glaciers are crucial to the surrounding area's ecology and they are also a major tourist draw for Lijiang, one of China's most popular travel destinations. The photos below compare how one of Yulong's peaks looked in November 2004 (top) and last Saturday.

Kunming native and accomplished explorer Jin Feibao was awarded a 2007 Golden Rhinoceros Outdoor Award in Beijing on Sunday for "Outdoor event of the year" – an award commemorating his visiting both of the Earth's poles and each continent's highest summit in the 19 months from May 2006 to December 2007.

The award is Jin's second consecutive Golden Rhinoceros – last year he was awarded a Golden Rhino "Breakthrough award". This year is the third year in which the prize has been awarded by China's top mountain climbers and adventurers to the year's most outstanding outdoor adventurers.

"I'm extremely happy to be able to be able to repeat as a Golden Rhinoceros award winner this year," Jin said. "For me, this is the ultimate motivation and support."

In 2007 Jin ascended each continent's highest peak: Everest/Qomolongma in Asia, Kilimanjaro in Africa, McKinley in North America, Aconcagua in South America, Elbrus in Europe, Kosciuszko in Australia and Vinson in Antarctica. In addition to climbing these seven peaks, Jin hiked to the North and South Poles, at one point falling through thin ice into icy arctic waters while trekking toward the North Pole.

During his travels, Jin made daily phone calls back to his friends and family in Kunming, which were republished with permission on GoKunming. Jin told GoKunming that in addition to learning about different places around the world, he discovered the extent to which global climate change is affecting the world's most delicate ecosystems.

Jin is expected to be part of the Olympic torch relay team in Tibet this year.

Image: clzg.cn

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Points of extreme elevation are useful tools for scientists to study the effects of global warming on the Earth. Meili Snow Mountain's Mingyong glacier - which has receded by 40 meters in the last 13 years - not only demonstrates the existence of global warming but also the threat it poses to humanity, according to Liu Jiaxun, deputy director of Diqing Prefecture's Meteorological Bureau who has been researching northwest Yunnan's major peaks.

Located near northwest Yunnan's border with Tibet, Meili Snow Mountain (梅里雪山) is the highest mountain in Yunnan and is considered one of China's - and the world's - most spectacular mountains. The snow-capped mountain is also known as Kawagebo to Tibetan Buddhists, for whom it is one of eight sacred mountains.

Towering above everything else in sight at 6,740 meters (22,240 feet) above sea level, Mt Meili will be completely snowless within 80 years if current global warming rates persist, according to Liu. The researcher came to his conclusion after monitoring Mt Meili and other nearby mountains including Haba Snow Mountain and Baima Snow Mountain for ten years.

Mt Meili's Mingyong glacier is China's lowest and southernmost glacier at 2,700 meters above sea level and 28.5 degrees north of the equator. Liu told China's Xinhua News Agency that Mingyong's melting would create two kinds of crises for people living downstream from the glacier. As the rate of melting increased, farms and settlements would be damaged by flooding and mudslides/rockslides. After melting, the disappearance of the glacier would cause rivers to shrink dramatically and drought would ensue.

Liu said the area's average temperature rose from 4.8 degrees Celsius to 5.2 degrees Celsius from 1990 to 2006.

Image: The Nature Conservancy