China moots Himalayan ark project to survive climate ‘tipping point’, with some AI help

As the threat of global climate collapse grows, Beijing is considering a plan to turn the Tibetan Plateau into an agricultural stronghold

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Beijing is considering a plan to use the Tibetan Plateau to grow food for China in a future global climate crisis. Photo: Shutterstock

Published: 2:13pm, 23 Mar 2025

The plot of the Hollywood doomsday film, 2012 – where China builds survival arks on the Tibetan Plateau – is edging closer to reality with Beijing’s latest plan for getting through a global climate catastrophe.

Alarmed by accelerating global climate collapse, Chinese government scientists have proposed transforming the “roof of the world” into an agricultural stronghold.

It is a move that underscores Beijing’s increasing desperation in the face of looming ecological tipping points.

In a solemnly worded report published in Chinese-language journal Climate Change Research on March 4, the National Climate Centre (NCC) in Beijing warned that cascading climate breakdown – including the collapse of the Amazon rainforest, Atlantic Ocean currents and polar ice sheets – could destabilise global food systems within decades.

Their answer? According to the report, rapidly scaling up high-altitude farming on the Tibetan Plateau could enable the nation to survive the global disaster.

“Several climate tipping elements are approaching critical thresholds. It will have profound and extensive impacts on the Earth and its inhabitants – ranging from unprecedented sea-level rises to extreme weather events that render regions uninhabitable and overwhelm existing adaptive capacities,” wrote Ma Lijuan, senior NCC engineer and lead author of the study.