China temperatures highest since 1951: state media*
BEIJING, Dec 1 (AFP) Dec 01, 2007
Average temperatures in China rose this year to their highest level
since 1951, national meteorological officials said in state media Saturday.
"It is the 11th straight year for the country to experience an
abnormally high temperature against the global backdrop of climate
change," a meteorological spokeswoman, Jiao Meiyan, was quoted as saying
in the China Daily.
From January to November the average temperature was 11.3 degrees
Celsius (52.3 Fahrenheit), 1.2 degrees Celsius higher than an average
year, she said.
China's economy has boomed at nearly double-digit rates over much of the
past 25 years, and it is now one of world's biggest emitters of the
greenhouse gases blamed for global warming.