The results of the most comprehensive assessment to date on climate change and the decrease in melting snow and glaciers in the Himalayas, revealing an extreme vulnerability of the peaks of this range to climate change.
The report also reveals how rising temperatures affect the balance of the snow, ice and water, threatening millions of mountain people and over a billion people living downstream in the major river systems of Asia.
The findings, published in three reports were released yesterday at the Mountain Day, attended by practitioners, policy makers and negotiators of climate change in the framework of the summit of the UN Climate Change in Durban, South Africa.
The three reports published are the latest collection of information on the current state of climate change in the Himalayan region and the first reliable data on the number and extent of glaciers and snowfall patterns in the highest mountain range the planet.
The area has the livelihoods of 210 million people who live there and indirectly provides goods and services to 1.3 million people living in river basins downstream who benefit from food and energy.
Rich in biodiversity, the region is home to thousands of plants and 25,000 animal species and contains a greater diversity of forest types than the Amazon. However, despite the abundance of natural resources in the region, poverty is widespread. The countries traversed by the mountain range represent 15% of total migration in the world.
The Hindukush region (between Afghanistan and Pakistan) in the Himalayas, is home to 30% of glaciers in the world, what has been called the “third pole”. However, little data exists on its glaciers. One of the reports submitted data reveals the state of the glaciers in this region using remote sensing studies, the survey was able to count the number of glaciers in the region, more than 54,000, and measure the floor area, 60,000 miles.
Of the 54,000 glaciers, however, only ten have been regularly studied to determine the net gain or loss of ice and snow. A handful of studies are showing a loss of about twice the mass between 1980 and 2000, and 1996 and 2005.
In the Everest area, the data show a marked acceleration in glacier mass loss between 2002 and 2005. The glaciers appear to be decreasing, both in central and eastern Himalayas.
Studies from different countries account for the reduction in glacier area in the past 30 years, both in Bhutan (22%) and Nepal (21%). While the Tibetan plateau glaciers are retreating at a rate faster than the central Himalayan glaciers, which have a greater coverage of waste and debris that create an insulating effect, slowing the melt.
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