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Drought has taken the lives of untold millions throughout history. Records in the Bible, historic texts, ancient tree-trunk rings and archaeological pollen deposits document a multitude of periods of abnormally low precipitation. Wild vegetation suffers, crops fail, and food and water supplies drop below the minimum necessary for sustaining life.
While severe drought has hit all continents, China seems to have had more than its fair share of droughts, with by far the highest number of victims. The deadliest drought in recorded history occurred in China between 1876 and 1879. Rivers were so dry that most crops and livestock died. There was no food production in a 1-million sq km (390 thousand sq mi) area of nine provinces, leading to the death of an estimated nine million people. In 1920, the north of the country was hit hard, with 20 million victims of starvation and at least 500,000 dead. And an even greater drought took place in 1936, the so-called New Famine, in which 34 million farmers were displaced and 5 million people starved. Millions more perished in northwest China, in Henan Province, and in Sichuan Province, in 1928-30, 1941, and 1942-43, respectively.
Because recorded statistics are not encouraging, a devastating drought in China some time in the next five to ten years could cause inestimable damage. Indeed, at the time of writing, Guangdong Province, along with a wide swathe of the southern and central regions, are suffering from the most severe drought in 50 years. Hundreds of thousands are experiencing a lack of drinking water, bur there is still little damage to national rice and grain production due to the relatively small size of the area affected. But if the drought area expands, the problem could become national, with international implications.
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