Until the very last moment, we did not know what will happen after China. South Korea was unsure, the same with Japan. Then we got the green light from South Korea. Shortly after that I met a very upset Louis: He just had received a mail from japan...

The cherry blossom festival was an important time for the Japanese emperor’s court. That’s why we can find in the chronicles of the Japanese imperial administration the exact dates on which the festivals took place. Between the years 700 – 1950 B.C. there was hardly ever fluctuation. Since 1950, however, all that has changed – in the last half of the 20th century the peak of the cherry bloom time has shifted eight days.The climate change announced by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) will shift the borders between climate zones. Let’s take a European example: According to a University of Kassel study, the Alps will mark the geographical path of climate change. In the next two decades in the region north of the Alps field crops will increase, while in the region south of the Alps forest fires, water shortage and harvest losses will become the norm.

The new “benefits” for northern Europe will not last long, though. Due to global warming 20 to 50 percent of the plant species will die out, according to the study, because their ecological habitat will be drastically changed. Heat waves will afflict particularly the southern part of Old Europe; they already had a taste of that there in July 2006. Last summer alone in France 2000 people died from the aftereffects of heat. The third part of the IPCC report will provide solutions for the climate desaster. In Southern Europe in the last hot summers many of the retired people who are affected by the heat the most gathered in the supermarket in front of the fridges.

China and Japan agreed to work both together in order to combat climate change. The countries will sign the follow-up paper of the Kyoto Protocol. China for the first time expressed its political will to work for the environment. China as a so called development country had not to sign the Kyoto Protocol. The country, however, is the second largest emitter of CO2 in the world.

The Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao and his Japanese colleague Shinzo Abe having a cup of tea after signing their new climate declaration.
The new declaration was signed in Tokio during a meeting of the Prime Ministers of China and Japan, Wen Jiabao and Shinzo Abe. Foto: Reuters