Himalayas Unsettled by Melting Glaciers, More Avalanches

For the last two climbing seasons, Dawa Sherpa has missed scaling the summit of Mt Everest. But the climate ambassador for the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and two-time Everest summiteer may not be relishing the thought of bearing witness once more to the impact of rising temperatures on the world’s highest peak.

Indeed, he says that even making one’s way just up to Base Camp, which lies at an altitude of 5,380 meters, can already give one the dismal view of the devastation climate change is wreaking.

"Snow cover in the mountains is decreasing, crevasses are opening up in the glaciers," says Dawa. "Avalanches (have been) occurring frequently (in) the past two years."

In 2010, one of his Sherpa staff lost his life to an avalanche. Dawa also recalls Apa Sherpa, the 20-time Everest summiteer who has been climbing Everest since 1990, as saying last year that he has seen small puddles of water even at an altitude of 8,000 meters.

At the time of Apa Sherpa's last summit, his record breaking 20th summit, he reported that climate change is making Mount Everest more dangerous to climb.

Apa Sherpa, who dedicated his last climb to the impact of global warming on the Himalayas, said he was disturbed by the visible changes on the mountain caused by rising temperatures.

"The snow along the slopes had melted, exposing the bare rocks underneath, which made it very difficult for us to walk up the slope as there was no snow to dig our crampons into," he stated. "This has made the trail very dangerous for all climbers."

After the Arctic and Antarctica, the snow and glaciers of the Himalayas are the largest store of water on the planet. When the ice of these glaciers melt each spring, it supplies the largest rivers in Asia—including the Ganges (left), Indus, Brahmaputra, Mekong, Yellow, and Yangtze rivers—with a surge of fresh water that is desperately needed to support the huge populations lining their banks.

Snow and glaciers cover about 10 percent of the area of Nepal, where about 10 percent of the stream flows can be traced back to the glaciers.

Melting glaciers and receding snow lines, however, are just among the many manifestations of climate change in this tiny Himalayan nation.
Ministry of Forests and Soil Conservation Joint Secretary Dr Jagadish Chandra Baral shared a striking example of how climate change has been affecting Nepal’s horticulture sector.

"The apple-growing belt in the Mustang district is gradually shifting to higher altitudes," says Baral, who writes frequently on climate change, because warming temperatures have resulted in their fruits getting worms. "People there claim that while they could easily produce healthy apples as low as Lete (2,480 meters) until a few years ago, the apples now tend to catch worms even in higher altitudes like Larjung (2,550 meters), Kobang (2,640 meters) and Marpha (2,670 meters)."

Mustang is located near the Tibet border. Recently, a village there was dubbed as Nepal’s first ‘climate refugee village’.

Efforts are now underway to resettle the entire village of Dhe to a lower area of Mustang. Dhe, a village in Surkhang VDC of Upper Mustang with a total of 23 households had to be resettled in Thangchung in Lower Mustang.Among other things, the sources of water there are drying up, while the flora in and around the area have been vanishing fast, leaving the villagers’ cattle herds and other grazing animals with little to eat.

According to the English-language national daily ‘Republica’, which broke the news about Dhe in June, "(a) total of 150 people (23 households) …are being shifted due to the adverse impact of climate change on the livelihoods of the poor in the village".

"Dhe village has been facing an acute shortage of water for irrigation over the last six to seven years," it added. "The irrigated land over the period has also been reduced to less than 50 percent and animal husbandry (particularly goat keeping) has declined by 40 to 45 percent.

The irony is that Nepal itself is said to contribute next to nothing to climate change, which is traced by experts to greenhouse gas emissions of countries around the world.

China and India, which sandwich Nepal, in fact happen to be two of the world’s fastest industrializing and highest carbon dioxide-emitting countries. (At right: current carbon dioxide emissions by country)

Madan Shrestha of the Nepal Academy of Science and Technology also remarks, "We have ample scientific evidence to prove that climate change is causing the Himalayan glaciers to retreat."

Shrestha has been studying Nepal’s glaciers since 1974, when he was a part of the Glaciological Expedition to Nepal (a joint effort of Japan and Nepal).

He says that he was shocked beyond belief to see a picture taken in October 2009 of the Yala glacier (5,100 meters to 5,700 meters) in Lamtang area in central Nepal. Comments Shrestha: "The photograph was evidence of the fact that the glacier’s mass had decreased and there was a significant terminus retreat."

A comparative analysis of photographs taken during different time periods clearly reveals that the fate of other glaciers such as AX010 (4,950 meters to 5,390 meters) glacier in Shorong mountain in East Nepal is no different, he adds.

Shrestha says, though, that since Nepal’s contribution to global climate change is minimal, there is not much it needs to do in terms of mitigation. "As a token response to international efforts we should voice our willingness to be a part of mitigation efforts," he says, "but our focus has to be on adaptation". (Right: cumulative carbon dioxide emissions by country)

By that, he means introducing heat-resistant crop varieties and working to strengthen the dam structures so that they can withstand increased water pressure, among other thing. He says that Nepal can take a cue from Bangladesh, which has already introduced a flood-resistant variety of rice.

"It is high time we factored in climate change in our development discourse," says Shrestha. "This has simply been not happening."

Source:
IPS News, "Himalayas Unsettled by Melting Glaciers, More Avalanches", accessed October 5, 2010
Adventure Travel and News from Himalayans,"Climate Change-Affecting Lives in Nepal", accessed October 5, 2010