The Tragedy of the Himalayas
Scientists are concerned about the impact of climate change on the Himalayas. Reports show that the amount of precipitation (snowfall) in the Himalayas during the last twenty-five years has dropped as temperatures have risen. The glaciers store precipitation as land ice. As precipitation decreases, the sizes of the glaciers in the Himalayas decrease. The glaciers of the Himalayas and the Tibetan Plateau, which covers parts of India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan and China, are the water tower of Asia. Every spring, the thawing ice and snow from the glaciers provide water to the region’s rivers and in turn provides water to the billions of people who live in the region. The melting ice provides a regular and dependable source of water to the huge population that lives downstream from the Himalayas. Independent scientific studies indicate that the Himalayan glaciers are melting fast probably because of warming temperatures brought on by global warming. Since 1960, almost a fifth of the Indian Himalayas’ ice coverage has disappeared. The 2007 global-warming assessment by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change concluded that the glaciers in the Himalayas were “receding faster than at any other place in the world.” If global warming continues, the glaciers of the Himalayas will decrease in size and in their ability to provide water to the billions of people dependent on them. As the population increases and the amount of melting ice decreases, competition for water will grow.
In my opinion the studies done by these scientists will make people more aware of the effects of global warming on the Himalayas. When we think of the effects of global warming, we usually think about the Arctic only. Now these studies will show that global warming is not just having an effect of the Arctic, it’s also having an effect on the Himalayas and most likely other areas we have not heard about. These studies will hopefully convince people as well as the world governments to do something to prevent future global warming.
By:greendragon
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