Himalayan Glaciers in Peril
Two-Thirds of the Hindu-Kush Himalaya Glaciers could vanish by 2100
On 29 May 2023 the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development, ICIMOD, issued an urgent call to action for world leaders, based on the state of glaciers melting around Mount Everest and through the Hindu Kush Himalayas due to global warming:
“The climate emergency is here for the Earth’s tallest mountain, 70 years on from its first ascent, with two thirds of the Hindu-Kush Himalaya glaciers projected to vanish by the end of the century.”
The 79 glaciers surrounding Everest have thinned by over 100 metres in just six decades, and the thinning has nearly doubled since 2009.
Photo: Alex Treadway / ICIMOD
Pema Gyamtsho, ICIMOD Director General, said:
“The dangerous impacts of global warming are already being felt throughout the Hindu Kush Himalaya in record-breaking heat waves, droughts, natural disasters, unpredictable snowfall, and precipitous and largely irreversible glacial melt. We need urgent global action to protect the lives and livelihoods of the two billion people in this region and to safeguard the countless, irreplaceable lifeforms that exist only here.”
Melting glaciers were a key factor, combined with exceptional heatwaves and violent monsoon rains in the disastrous floods in 2022 in Pakistan, which we documented in our film Climate Carnage in Pakistan.
Anyone who thinks that climate change can be divided into self-contained regions, and that what happens in the Hindu-Kush Himalayas is a world away, should recall that melting permafrost caused hundreds of metres and thousands of tonnes of rock to break off the summit of the Fluchthorn in Austia in the middle of June 2023.
ICIMOD has launched a “SAVE OUR SNOW” declaration, which states:
“With even 1.5 degrees of warming too hot for the Hindu Kush Himalaya and the quarter of humanity who live within or rely on it, every fraction of a degree matters. We urge leaders of all nations: make real on your commitments to make rapid and deep emission cuts, end all new coal, gas and oil exploration, and accelerate the transition to renewable energy.
We are calling for the protection of natural ecosystems; the scaling up of work to halt deforestation while increasing afforestation and reforestation; much greater investment and faster flows of funding in climate resilience and adaptation, including early-warning systems for all mountain communities; greater recognition and integration of local and indigenous communities in decision-making; and greater international cooperation and funding for loss and damage”.
Signatories include Rt Hon Helen Clark, former Prime Minister of New Zealand, Dr Renate Christ, former Secretary of the International Panel for Climate Change (IPCC). Legendary climber Reinhold Messner, descendants of Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary, Samuel Sidiqi, the first Afghan to summit Everest, Naila Kiani, the first Pakistani woman to summit six 8,000+meter mountains and Jornet, and hundreds of earth scientists from the Hindu Kush Himalaya region.