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July 16th, 2010
Via The Economist, a report on a breathtaking new exhibit at the Asia Society in New York which suggests that the earth’s Third Pole – the massive Himalayan ice towers - are undergoing dramatic change as a result of climate change.  As the article notes:
“…David Breashears, a legendary mountaineer and cinematographer, and his team have travelled the high Himalayas on a peculiar quest the past few years. Armed with antique photographs of the world’s highest peaks, shot by the first modern men to scale them—including such luminaries as Hillary himself—he has tried to duplicate those shots exactly.
The result is both breathtaking and deeply distressing. That is because his paired photos show a dramatic decline in glacial ice. Whether it is the forward edge (or “snout”), the vertical height or the mass balance of these rivers of ice, the pictures make clear that something strange is happening.
To investigate what this means, the Asia Society organised a panel discussion during the exhibit’s launch. Featured on the panel were David Breashears, Orville Schell (the head of the Society’s US-China programme), Bill McKibben (a prominent American environmentalist and author) and Syed Hasnain (a leading Indian glaciologist).
After some discussion about the likely causes of the glaciers receding—the experts agreed it was linked to climate change, aggravated by mankind’s use of fossil fuels—the talk turned to the heart of the matter: likely impacts. The biggest one concerns water. Many glaciers, ranging from the Andes to the Alps, are in recession, but the impacts of the Himalayan glaciers’ recession could be much more devastating.
That is because more than a billion people rely, at least in part, on water from these glaciers; they are sometimes called Asia’s Water Towers. The rapid melting of these glaciers would provide more fresh water in the short run, perhaps, but is likely in the long run to have negative consequences. That is because glacial melt provides an important (though not the only) source of fresh water for thirsty agricultural and industrial communities in India, China and other countries in the region—especially during the “shoulder” seasons when rainfall can be unreliable.
What to do? Answers can be found in both supply and demand, suggested the experts. On the supply side, governments of the region—always suspicious of each other, and at times hostile—must work together much more closely in measurement and data verification. Advances in satellite technology can help on this front. A good model for co-operation is the Arctic Council, which brings together the many countries touching on the northern polar region.
Even more difficult, it was suggested, are reforms in how Asians use water. But these will be absolutely necessary. Much water is wasted, especially in agriculture (due to the lack of advanced techniques like drip-irrigation, pioneered in dry Israel, much of Asia’s fresh water evaporates before reaching either crop or throat). Policies to meter, price and regulate water use efficiently will go far in avoiding the tragedy that otherwise awaits a thirsty Asia.