Third Pole Melting
Sunday, 5. April 2009, 07:54:30
I must admit that although I have seen plenty of glaciers in places like Norway, the Alps, Canada, Alaska, South America and not least Greenland, I have never been to the Himalayas or the Tibetan Plateau. I have seen numbers from 3,000 to 45,000 glaciers for the area, but whatever the number nowhere else on Earth outside of Greenland and Antarctica is there such a concentration of freshwater, stored as ice. Because of the vast and massive glacial ice sheets the Tibetan Plateau is often called the “Third Pole”.
Some of the world’s most populated areas and states are dependent on the water supply from the roof of the World - coming at the right speed, not too much or too little at a time. We are talking about something like 2 billion people relying on the water flowing to the oceans via major rivers like the Yangtze, Yellow River, Brahmanputra, Ganges, and Mekong - indeed some of the largest rivers in Asia. But the glaciers are shrinking, and shrinking fast. Being each individually relatively small, they are melting much faster that the Ice on Antarctica and Greenland.
70% of the water in the river Ganges comes from the Himalayas. 80% of the river water in India is used for irrigation, and it will be necessary to change the agricultural practices. The glaciers function as a kind of water towers. They collect water from the monsoon in the wet season, and release it in the dry season. But how effective they are depends on how much water is in the towers.
Most urban dwellers on the southern side of the Himalayas don’t see a problem. Because of the recent rapid melting, cities have been getting used to excessive freshwater supplies. There is more than enough water in most big cities right now. Let the present financial crisis be a warning. Some day the credits may come to an end. The present tapping of the glacial water tower is tapping a bank account that has built over thousands of years. But that bank account is being rapidly diminished.
The melting of glaciers in the southern slopes of the Himalayas caused by climate change is also being accelerated by the "Asian brown cloud". The Asian brown cloud is a layer of air pollution that covers parts of South Asia, namely the northern Indian Ocean, India, and Pakistan. Viewed from satellite photos, the cloud appears as a giant brown stain hanging in the air over much of Asia and the Indian Ocean every year between January and March.
In a speech a couple of months ago the Chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change (IPCC) Rajendra Kumar Pachauri said that there were 500,000 km2 of glacial cover in the Himalayas in 1995. At the present rate of shrinking, there will be 100,000 by 2030. These glaciers are shrinking at a faster rate than any other in the world. 6 million Tibetans homes are being radically degraded by the thawing.
• http://climatechange.foreignpolicyblogs.com/2009/01/18/the-melting-himalayas/
• http://www.rediff.com/news/2007/nov/26warming.htm
• http://www.indianmuslims.info/news/2008/feb/06/two_billion_face_water_famine_himalayan_glaciers_melt.html
• http://www.screenindia.com/news/melting-of-glaciers-a-cause-for-concern-pachauri/243587/
Some of the world’s most populated areas and states are dependent on the water supply from the roof of the World - coming at the right speed, not too much or too little at a time. We are talking about something like 2 billion people relying on the water flowing to the oceans via major rivers like the Yangtze, Yellow River, Brahmanputra, Ganges, and Mekong - indeed some of the largest rivers in Asia. But the glaciers are shrinking, and shrinking fast. Being each individually relatively small, they are melting much faster that the Ice on Antarctica and Greenland.
70% of the water in the river Ganges comes from the Himalayas. 80% of the river water in India is used for irrigation, and it will be necessary to change the agricultural practices. The glaciers function as a kind of water towers. They collect water from the monsoon in the wet season, and release it in the dry season. But how effective they are depends on how much water is in the towers.
Most urban dwellers on the southern side of the Himalayas don’t see a problem. Because of the recent rapid melting, cities have been getting used to excessive freshwater supplies. There is more than enough water in most big cities right now. Let the present financial crisis be a warning. Some day the credits may come to an end. The present tapping of the glacial water tower is tapping a bank account that has built over thousands of years. But that bank account is being rapidly diminished.
The melting of glaciers in the southern slopes of the Himalayas caused by climate change is also being accelerated by the "Asian brown cloud". The Asian brown cloud is a layer of air pollution that covers parts of South Asia, namely the northern Indian Ocean, India, and Pakistan. Viewed from satellite photos, the cloud appears as a giant brown stain hanging in the air over much of Asia and the Indian Ocean every year between January and March.
In a speech a couple of months ago the Chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change (IPCC) Rajendra Kumar Pachauri said that there were 500,000 km2 of glacial cover in the Himalayas in 1995. At the present rate of shrinking, there will be 100,000 by 2030. These glaciers are shrinking at a faster rate than any other in the world. 6 million Tibetans homes are being radically degraded by the thawing.
• http://climatechange.foreignpolicyblogs.com/2009/01/18/the-melting-himalayas/
• http://www.rediff.com/news/2007/nov/26warming.htm
• http://www.indianmuslims.info/news/2008/feb/06/two_billion_face_water_famine_himalayan_glaciers_melt.html
• http://www.screenindia.com/news/melting-of-glaciers-a-cause-for-concern-pachauri/243587/
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