Global Warming will melt Himalayan glaciers

If global warming does not stop, three-quarters of the Himalayan glaciers will melt within the next hundred years, risking the survival of hundreds of millions of people and the world’s highest peaks, warns a study published today in Kathmandu.

The report of the International Center for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), has been developed over five years by 350 researchers from 22 countries and 185 organizations in the Hindu Kush and Himalayan region (HKH), reveals a “climate crisis” you have not heard of.

The Director of the ICIMOD report, Philippus Wester, says, “Global warming is on the way on transforming the cold peaks covered by glaciers of the KHK that pass along eight countries, are to discover rocks in less than a century.”

The data collected by the experts argue that the air pollution originated in the HKH amplifies the effects of greenhouse gases causing terrible consequences.

The impact on the people of the region, which is already one of the most fragile and prone mountains to hazards in the world, will range from a worsening of air pollution to an increase in extreme meteorological phenomenon.

If global warming continues, there could be other consequences

Researchers have concluded that if the warming continues, mountain temperatures will rise by 5 °C and this would lead to the loss of two-thirds of the glaciers by 2100.

According to the report, even if global warming remains at 1.5 °C, temperatures in the region will rise to 2.1 °C and a third of the glaciers will melt. In such manner, the consequence in any scenario would be critical for food production in the zone of the valleys.

Snow-covered areas and snow volumes will decrease in most regions over the next few decades due to rising temperatures.

In addition, air pollution is increasingly in this region and air quality has worsened in the last two decades, which has made the HKH one of the most polluted regions of the world.

In a separate report entitled Tourism and Mountain Development, were exposed the devastating consequences that this issue would also have for the tourism sector, one of the main sources of income for the populations of the region.

The report states that between 15% and 20% of the world tourism industry, or between 70,000 and 90,000 million dollars per year, corresponds to mountain tourism.