Oh No Don't Let The Himalayan Ice Melts Down

Photo courtesy ©Thomas Nash 2007.

1. We have been informed that climate change in the Himalayas is a foregone conclusion but it still remains one of the biggest challenge for humanity. Geologically, the Himalayas are the youngest and most ecologically fragile mountains of the world, and yet they are highly vulnerable to climate change.

2. The Himalayas stretch across Myanmar, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Afghanistan and China, serving as a source to three of the world's major river systems, the Indus, the Yangtze and the Ganga-Brahmaputra. They are in fact the line-line for more than a billion people in Asia and its biodiversity.

3. In term of biodiversity, the Himalayas contain many viable populations of iconic and threatened species of plants and animals of the world. To mention a few these would include the Bangal Tiger, the Asian Elephants, the rhinoceros, etc. The Himalayas flora is well-known to the Japanese botanists for they pioneered the many studies there, not to mention of course the local Indian, Bangladeshis, Nepalese and Chinese etc botanists who had documented the many endemic and medicinal plant species.

4. The Himalayas has a rich culture across Bhutan, Nepal and northern India where this tapestry hides the fragile landscape where traditional practices and beliefs are eroding under population growth, political instability and threats from unplanned socio-economic developmentm deforestation and of course climate change.

5.The Himalayas store fresh water in the lakes, carbon, glaciers and above all the ICE. With the onslaught of climate change, the region is experiencing episodes of drought, increased temperature and altered precipitation. We were informed many fresh water lakes have been formed up there due to the constant melting ice.

6. The questions normally asked include what would happen to life down under in Yangtze Chia and Indian Indus and Ganga-Brahmiputra especially those people living along the three great rivers if more ice melts and constant and sporadic floods occur. Could you then imagine how would the millions adapt to these scenarios?. The analogy is what would happen to many cities and their millions of populations in Asia if the ocean level rises between 2-6 meters!