Encyclopedia of Global Resources part 24 provides a wide variety of perspectives on both traditional and more recent views of Earth's resources. It serves as a bridge connecting the domains of resource exploitation, environmentalism, geology, and biology, and it explains their interrelationships in terms that students and other nonspecialists can understand. The articles in this set are extremely diverse, with articles covering soil, fisheries, forests, aluminum, the Industrial Revolution, the . Department of the Interior, the hydrologic cycle, glass, and placer mineral deposits. . | 200 China Global Resources cubic meters or almost equal to China s total annual runoff. In addition to fisheries and transportation irrigation hydration industrial and numerous other uses water resources in China are a significant energy reser ve. The total hydrological power reser ve is estimated at 680 million kilowatts ranking first in the world. Of the total 380 million kilowatts can be developed to generate trillion kilowatt-hours of electricity which contribute a great deal to China s economic development and the world economy. Climate Resources China s vast territory spans multiple climate zones from the south to the north including tropical subtropical warm temperate temperate and boreal. In addition the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau has a unique alpine region. Nevertheless the subtropical warm temperate and temperate climate zones compose approximately 70 percent of the country. As diverse as the climate is the basic characteristic is a continental monsoon climate which exhibits three main features substantial daily and seasonal temperature differential uneven precipitation distribution with a steady drop from the southeast to the northwest by a dramatic 40 1 ratio and dramatic wind turnover between winter and summer. During the winter cold and dry air from high latitude rises from the north. In summer warm and humid wind comes mainly from the ocean in the southeast. The average annual temperatures in the eastern region descend from south to north from 25 Celsius to Celsius. Most of the western Qinghai-Tibet Plateau has annual average temperatures below 0 Celsius but the Tarim basin is 10 Celsius. The temperature differential in the summer between the south and north is small only 10 Celsius. In the winter however the temperature difference between these two regions can be as much as 50 Celsius. The lowest temperature in the Mohe area can dip below -50 Celsius. The average annual precipitation across China is 629 millimeters with a steady decline in annual
