Japanese cherry blossoms are threatened

For Japanese people, the cherry blossom season signals the winter is over and spring is coming. But this flower is blooming sooner and will face a gloomy future due to global warming.

Japanese people often hold a party to watch flowers under cherry trees.Photo: kyoto.travel.

This year, the cherry blossom season officially begins on March 21, which means 5 days earlier than expected and a week earlier than the average flowering period during the past 30 years.

The Japan Meteorological Agency confirmed that he dug early, not an abnormal phenomenon that only occurred once. In fact, this situation has occurred continuously for many years. Normally, cherry blossoms on Japan's southern islands will hatch as early as the second half of March each year, then turn cherry trees on the central island of Honshu and the northern islands.

40 years ago, the cherry on Honshu island began to hatch into 1/4. However, the Japan Hydrometeorological Agency said that in the last few years, digging on islands some 200 km north of Honshu has begun to hatch into 1/4. The cause of this change is global warming and urbanization.

Sumiko, 76, and living in Tokyo's Naka-meguro district, said: 'I came to the capital more than 40 years ago. Then cherry blossoms bloom around April 10. But in recent years they often bloom in the period of March 20-25.

Experts say the temperature in the city is always much higher than in the countryside due to the presence of millions of cars, air conditioners, and heating systems. Cities lack open space but there are too many substances that absorb heat from the Sun (such as concrete, asphalt).

Nobuyuki Asada, a member of the Japanese Cherry Blossom Lovers Association, judged that climate changes made the future of cherry blossoms gloomy. 'If the air temperature continues to increase and the rainy season becomes more and more erratic, I'm not sure if cherry trees can last for 50 or 100 years. Many trees have stopped flowering, 'Asada said.

Every year, the Japan Meteorological Administration always tries to accurately predict the date when cherry blossoms bloom in each region of the country. This is a very important job of the people of Phu Tang who have a habit of holding a view of cherry blossoms for weeks before the flowers bloom. At those parties, people invite friends, relatives and colleagues to cherry trees to eat and watch flowers.

Although presiding over the Kyoto conference on greenhouse gas emissions reduction in 1997, Japan has not yet been considered an exemplary country in its efforts to prevent climate change. Under the Kyoto Protocol, the land of the rising sun must cut 6% of greenhouse gas emissions by 1990. But the latest statistics show that Asia's largest economy still produces 'annually'. Greenhouse gas emissions are 9.2% higher than 1990 levels.