A flooded area after heavy rain in Shangrao, in southeast China's Jiangxi province.Photo Agence France-Presse — Getty Imagesfrom The New York Times International WeeklyHONG KONG — China is grappling with extreme weather emergencies across the country, with the worst flooding in decades submerging homes and cars in the south and record heatwaves in northern and central provinces causing road deformations.Water levels in more than 100 rivers across the country have exceeded flood warning levels, according to People's Daily, the mouthpiece of the ruling Communist Party.Rescue workers evacuating residents of Xinli village who were displaced by flooding after heavy rains this month in Shaoguan, China's Guangdong province.Photo Via ReutersAuthorities in Guangdong province raised alerts to the highest level on Tuesday after days of rain and flooding, closing schools, shops and public transport in the affected areas.The floods have affected the lives of nearly half a million people in southern China.Images on state media showed rescue teams in boats rowing through flooded roads to help trapped residents.In Shaoguan, a manufacturing hub, factories were ordered to halt production as water levels hit a 50-year high, state television reported.Guangdong's emergency management department said the rains affected 479,600 people, ruined nearly 30 hectares of crops and caused more than 1,700 houses to collapse, with financial losses totaling 261 million U.S. dollars, the official agency reported. Xinhua news.China has been dealing with summer flooding for centuries, but this year's flooding has also coincided with heat waves that hit the northern part of the country, where heavy rains are also expected to move in the coming days, according to the Observatory. Central Weather.On Tuesday, temperatures reached a maximum of 40 degrees in nine northern and central provinces.In Henan, road surface temperatures of up to 73 degrees Celsius last week created ruptures in cement roads that resembled the aftermath of an earthquake, local media reported.Scorching heat in some of China's most populous provinces has increased demand for air conditioning, leading to record electricity use.In Shandong, a province in northeast China with a population of 100 million, peak electricity load reached a record 92.94 million kilowatts on Tuesday, surpassing the 2020 peak of 90.22 million kilowatts, the state television.Premier Li Keqiang said Tuesday while visiting a thermal power company that the country must increase coal production capacity to avoid power outages.Floods and heat waves in China this year have dragged on for days and weeks, as happened last year when weeks of flooding killed hundreds of people, caused power outages and displaced millions in central and southwestern China, including in Zhengzhou, where floodwaters trapped commuters on the subway.The dual climate emergency China is experiencing reflects a global trend of increasingly frequent and prolonged episodes of extreme weather events triggered by climate change.China has turned farmland into cities in recent decades, lifting millions of people in rural areas out of poverty.But in its pursuit of economic development, it has also become the world's biggest polluter, with greenhouse gas emissions higher than all developed nations combined.Since then, Xi Jinping has become the country's first leader to commit to addressing climate change as a national priority.China introduced a carbon market last July to curb emissions and in the past two decades has nearly quintupled the area of ​​green space in its cities.But significant environmental damage has already been done.The devastation and disruption resulting from greenhouse gases that have already been emitted are likely to continue for years to come.@Zixu Wang in Hong Kong and Li You in Shanghai contributed reporting.Commenting on Clarín's notes is exclusively for subscribers.To comment you must activate your account by clicking on the e-mail that we sent you to the boxDidn't find the email?Click here and we'll resend it to you.To comment on our notes, please complete the following information.The most important news of the day, to read with breakfast.The most important of each day, the necessary reading on the way home.Stones 1743. CABA, ArgentinaEdition Nº: 9583 June 30, 2022You are already a Clarín subscriberOwner Graphic Art Editorial Argentino SA © 1996-2022 Clarín.com - Clarín Digital - All rights reserved.Read the paper edition