Letters | Wednesday, 07 January 2009

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Global climate change has severely reached Tibet

The Tibetan plateau is warming at a vast rate in temperature since the early 1970s as testified by Wang Jiaquan in his report ‘Roof of the World’ of 21 June, 2007.
Tibet, in recent years, has been experiencing disturbing weather phenomena such as snowstorms and windstorms. In 2007, Western Tibet had nine continuous days of wind and dusts, a 20-year record high. Most areas reported an average decrease in precipitation by 20 to 90%, the longest snowfall in the past 29 years, and 11cm snowfall was recorded by Xinghua’s China Economic Information Service on 11 January 2008.
Many Himalayan glaciers are also melting due to increase in temperatures. In the past 40 years, the glaciers have shrunk by 6,600 sq. km and are currently melting at an estimated rate of 7% each year. As a result, the United Nations has warned that Tibet’s glaciers could disappear within 100 years. The Himalaya, as we know it, would be no more.
The collapse of the Amnye Machen glacier has been reported by the Chinese Academy of Science and the Ministry of Water Conservation in Chengdu, Sichuan PRC, in 2004. Ice, boulders and snow avalanched down the mountain into the Qings Shiu river forming a natural dam. In 2007, the dam broke and dramatically affected the land and people downstream, especially Bangladesh. The floods also had disastrous effects in Arunachal Pradesh in Eastern India, where 50,000 people were left homeless, more than 20 bridges and other infrastructures were damaged. The economic loss was estimated at more than $23 million.
Climate change indicates that the permafrost in the region of the Yellow River is currently moving upwards, by 50 to 70 metres, reported by Kishan Khoday of the United Nations Development Programme on 7 May, 2007; and Greenpace warned that there are more significant carbon stores in permafrost layers in the form of methane, which could be released if the permafrost melts, further contributing to global warming.
Due to its unique geographic location and high altitude, Tibet faces rapid change in its ecosystems. The survival of millions of people and thousands of plants and animals in Tibet, China and neighbouring countries are at severe risk.

Michael Alexander
Ta’ Xbiex

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