Welcome to the Roof of the World

Hello Everyone,

Welcome to my blog about Climate Change in the Himalayas.

I pinned down – Himalaya - the most spectacular and scared region in the world on the blog topic without a second thought when I got to know it would be my semester-long assignment for Global Environmental Change class as part of Master program of Climate Change in UCL. I picked up Himalayans not only because I have been fascinated by its breathtakingly beautiful landscape and incredible biodiversity, but also seeing that compared with the frequently reported and well-known glaciers retreating in the Arctic and Antarctic, the complete science report of climate change at the 3rd pole is meagre and inadequate. Although evidence suggested that Himalayan region is warming there are still scientific uncertainties and questions to be addressed and resolved to understand the complex cause, trend, implication and significance in depth. Therefore, I am intrigued to continue with my study in this blog to seek for scientific knowledge and information about the state of climate change as well as the consequences of such changes for wildlife and people in the Himalayas.

Kangrinboqe Peak in Tibet (Credit: TAO Images Limited/Alamy) Source: BBC.co.uk

Why the Himalayas is so Important?

The Himalayas, as her Nepali name presents: ‘himá’ means snow, ‘ā-laya’ means mountain dwelling, is the massive snow-capped mountainous ranges of Himalaya, Karakoram, Hindu Kush (HKH) and a host of minor ranges, spanning Asia continental country Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Nepal, and Pakistan. Outside polar region, Himalaya has the highest concentration of landmass covered with snow, with about 15,000 glaciers as a source of numerous largest rivers in Asia. Over a billion people inhabiting in the basins and river catchment of Indus, Ganges, Brahmaputra, Yangtze and Yellow Rivers, rely on vast meltwater and monsoon rainfall to sustain their livelihood at varying times and elevations. Any change from this water tower at the roof of the world will have a considerable impact on the human well-being in downstream regions. 

FIGURE S.1 in Himalayan Glaciers: Climate Change, Water Resources, and Water Security (2012)

The Himalaya is also one of 25 global hot spots of biodiversity in the world, seeing from wild yak, snow leopards, blue sheep on Tibetan plateau, to Asian rhinos, tigers, crocodiles in the forest and lower wetland, these natural riches of wildlife are vulnerable to the environmental change and human-induced threats to their habitats.

A wild yak (Bos mutus) (Credit: Xi Zhinong/NPL) Source: BBC.co.uk

Is the Himalayas Melting, is Climate Change the Cause?

If you have ever trekked around any of remote Himalayan mountains or glacial lakes, you would agree with me that it requires great effort to get to your destination due to lack of atmospheric oxygen, tough terrain and harsh weather as you move up in high altitudes above 4000m. These physical constraints together with politics and diplomacy concerns, make it remain problematic for expedition team and research group to maintain an adequate and comprehensive long-term in-situ measurement of Himalayan glaciers. Even though the science techniques like remote sensing and satellite public domain have been improving to provide multiple coverages, the data and findings on Himalaya glaciers, are still sparse and lack of consistency. The region has been acknowledged as a "white spot", in the IPCC 2007 to refer to an area of 'little to no data'. The incomplete understandings of the process affecting glaciers under current climate, therefore, lead to public chaos and scientific debate.

Despite the inconsistency and uncertainties, there is a common consent on the general changes in Himalayan Glaciers according to current scientific observation as well as local perceptions of climate change. As widely known the most of glaciers have been retreating since the middle 19th century, in line with the report of temperature rising in eastern Himalaya region mainly during Jan-Mar (0.01–0.04°C annually), glacier retreats occurred mostly in the eastern and central part, while large glaciers have been stable recently in western Himalaya and the Karakoram.

As stated earlier, although glacier is retreating, how quickly and how sensitively Himalaya region reacts to the change is still not precisely characterized. In addition to the temperature and warming, glacier melting conditions would also be affected by glacier geomorphology, incoming solar radiation, cloudiness, aerosols and black carbon concentration, as well as Indian ocean circulation and monsoon pattern, their effects might be widely varying at a different degree in different locations and elevations.

With the lectures and study going on, in next few posts I will continue our 'visit' in Himalaya and try to understand the relationship between climate dynamic changes and Himalayas.

Thank you very much for reading. See you soon.