Wednesday 5 December 2007

Nepal facing glacier 'catastrophe'........is it any differrent here......


This is a lake in Nepal that should not exist. It is 6,000 metres above sea level, a kilometre long and 100 metres deep.Twenty-five years ago it was a glacier!

But since then, temperatures in what is one of the world's largest ice fields have risen year after year. And the world's leading climatologists think they know why.

"It's an important piece of evidence that the climate is actually warming," said Chris Folland, at the UK's Hadley Centre for Climate Research.

"What we've seen is that the large glaciers around the world in both hemispheres - South America, Europe, the Himalayas - have been retreating over the last 100 years."

The Himalaya is the highest and the youngest fragile mountain system on the earth, extending over 2500 km. Natural hazards of Himalayan region are associated with its inherent fragility due to immature geology and climatic extremes. This area is considered geo-dynamically active and it is prone to violent crystal movement causing seismicity. The common natural hazards in the region are earthquake, landslide (due to seismicity), landslide induced flood, cloudburst, ice/snow avalanches and glacial lake outburst flood (GLOF). Presently the earth is passing through a transition phase in terms of climatic change (the global mean surface temperature has increased by 0.5-1.0oC) since the late 19th century and rapid receding of glaciers to a major extent is the consequence of global warming (WMO/UNEP, 1990). Warming trend caused by climate change could have a dramatic effect on glaciated area. In snow-covered mountainous regions, warmer temperature may melt snow, reduce the reflective snow cover and allow more solar energy to be absorbed by the earth's surface.


Nepal's biggest glacial lakes is threatening to burst, putting nearby villages at risk of flooding.


Watch footage on the report recently aired on BBC @


http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediaselector/check/player/nol/newsid_7120000/newsid_7129000?redirect=7129088.stm&news=1&nbwm=1&bbwm=1&bbram=1&nbram=1&asb=1

Ann-Kathrin Schneider says.....................

Dear colleagues from Sikkim,

how are you? What is the latest developments on the planned dams in
Sikkim? Please let us know.

I wanted to inform you that International Rivers, the organization I
work for, has produced an Action Guide for Communities affected by Dams.
You can find it on the internet (an English version and a Hindi version).

http://www.internationalrivers.org/en/latin-america/dams-rivers-and-rights-action-guide-communities-affected-dams

Please take a look at the document and see whether it would be helpful
to translate that in one or more local languages for your struggles in
Sikkim. Please let me know and also let me know whether we can help you
with this somehow, if it would be useful.

Very best,
Ann

South Asia Coordinator
International Rivers