Climate Change in Himalaya

“To know your future you must know your past.” There is no better way to start the new semester with expanding the field of view on the Himalayas by looking at the paleoclimate and environment changes through time.  The Quaternary period where the transition from the Quaternary Ice Age, to Oldest Dryas, Older Dryas/Allerød and Younger Dryas and to current Holocene Interglacial, represents a distinctive period with typical climate events and environmental changes influencing earth ecosystems. The behaviours of glaciation and hydrology in Himalaya–Tibetan orogen at different regions have oscillated throughout the Quaternary  driven by different climatic forcing, in turn, could have had a major impact on global climate. It is of great importance for paleoecological research to understand the nature and dynamics of the Quaternary changes on this high land and adjacent regions. Many studies have applied the proxies records on Quaternary geological archives from  Himalaya–Tibet...

It was a great pleasure under such an unpleasant weather to spend the Saturday afternoon in Conway Hall listening to a range of international experts and campaigners to discuss the environmental sustainability issues and the impact of population growth on climate change, this conference of ''Climate Change and Us' was hosted by the membership charity Population Matters and chaired by Sara Parkin . One of the noteworthy takeaways for me is from the speech about ''Arctic Climate Feedback and Food production'' given by Prof Peter Wadhams who is UK's most experienced sea ice scientist, best known for his worldwide authority and 47 years of research on sea ice and physical ocean processes in the Arctic and the Antarctic. ''Since  the first measurements of albedo were collected from Nimbus-7 in 1979 '' , it is estimated that '' the Arctic ocean albedo has changed from 52% to 48% , produced an increase in radiative forcing 4W/m2'...

The 3-month long assignment has come to the end, but the journey with the Himalayas never ends. Writing this blog is just like a self-paced trekking deep into the Himalayas, along with the magnificent landscape and incredible flora and fauna, the environmental change is also taking place in the Third Pole in recent decades. Natural climate variability and increased human activities are known to have contributed to glacial environment change, forest degradation, floods and GLOFs, landcover and biodiversity loss associated with ecosystem disturbance, which in turn affects the global climate system regulation and leads to vulnerabilities in social-economic developments at many levels. Before it is too late, more attention and actions with precise steps are needed from governments, research institutions, NGOs, local communities, you, me and everyone, to safeguard the Himalayan environment and human well-being. I will keep this blog open for more discoveries along the journey in the Himalay...

Source: JULIE LARSEN MAHER @WCS Hi there, I know you rarely see me this close, I am a medium-sized cat but not that kind of cat you often see in nature, instead I am solitary by very high altitude and one of the most elusive and vulnerable top predators of the world. My kingdom can be found in mountainous regions from Central Asia of Russia, Mongolia, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan to Hindu-Kush-Himalayan regions through Afghanistan, Pakistan, Nepal and China. Life in these harshest environments is not easy, but I am very well evolved and superbly adapted to survive. Thanks to my woolly and dense hairs I can ward off the severe cold and easily walk on ice and snow with my large fur-covered snowshoes . I've also got enlarged nasal cavity and muscular chest to get sufficient oxygen at high altitudes, my powerful legs and long tail (as long as my body) help me to spring up to 50 feet high with a good balance , and move around my rugged kingdom without any problem. ...

Source: http://climateobserver.org/unfccc-last-round-negotiations-limas-climate-summit-opens-bonn/ “ We can seal the deal with you on the condition that no funding goes to India!”  said my classmates representing the States to another group representing China, in the Global Environmental Change class of last week, a role-play simulation of  COP23 climate negotiation.  “ We cannot use the excuse of money – or the lack of it – not to do anything. Yes, developed countries have to make financial commitments, but what if they don’t?”  Charles Hopkins, from international humanitarian charity  CARE International  in Ethiopia called for government  especially those in Africa , to make the policies for disaster management in place.  This urgent appeal sent by Mr Hopkins as well as the simulated international game of ‘give-and-take’ are both consistent with what I am going to talk about here to end the Himalayas hazard blog series.  ...

In past century, the natural hazard in the form of floods has become the most dominant disaster in the Himalayan region in terms of the frequency and scale of the damage that has been done. For examples, in  Bangladesh flood of 1998 , about 1000 people perished, 700,000 hectares of agricultural lands were wiped, more than a million people lost their home. According to  Asia Development Bank and World Bank 2010 : '' the direct damage caused by the floods was estimated to be US$6.5 billion, with an additional US$3.6 billion in indirect losses''.  Image: S. Bajracharya, ICIMOD, Nepal. Source:  State of Himalayan glaciers less alarming than feared  (http://www.media.uzh.ch/en/Press-Releases/archive/2012/teilentwarnung-fuer-himalaya-gletscher.html) Let’s first look at the nature of two relatively prevalent hazards in the Himalayas:  Monsoon Floods and Outburst Floods Monsoon Floods , as the name explains, are floods from the changes in monsoon r...

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 scien...