Ecology Center Berkeley

Ecology Center Berkeley

Ecology Center Berkeley

Sometimes known as “The Third Pole”, the Himalayan glaciers contain the world’s third largest store of freshwater after the Antarctic and Arctic. Since the ecology of the region is so finely balanced, with glacier runoff providing a regular pattern of melt water into the region’s largest rivers and acting as a backup supply of water in the event of monsoon failure, even minor climate changes can have a devastating environmental effect on the life blood of more than one billion people that depend on the Himalayan glaciers for their livelihoods. Unfortunately rising global temperatures are having a devastating effect on the Himalayan glaciers, with a consequent knock on effect on the environment of the region.

Environmental Importance of Himalayan Glaciers

High Stakes: Climate Change, the Himalayas, Asia and Australia by David Spratt and Damien Lawson and published by Friends of the Earth in August 2009, highlights the environmental importance of the Himalayan glaciers to the more than one billion people whose livelihoods depend on the wellbeing of the region’s ecosystem.

  • Himalayan glaciers hold over 12,000 cubic kilometers of fresh water, the third largest supply of freshwater on the planet.

  • The head waters of the largest eight rivers in Asia depend on these glaciers for seasonal melt water runoff.

  • The Greater Himalayan ice fields are a critical environmental resource for over one sixth of the world’s population.

  • The Himalayan glaciers contribute up to 45% of total river flow to the Indus, Ganges and Brahmaputra rivers on which more than 600 million people depend to support agricultural and local economies.

  • The Irrawaddy, Salween, Mekong, Yangtze and the Huang He (Yellow) Rivers, which have helped triple the world’s grain harvest since 1950, all depend on the Himalayan glaciers as their source of freshwater.

Effects of Climate Change on Himalayan Glaciers

Since the Himalayan ecosystem is so finely balanced, even minor changes in temperature can have devastating environmental effects, but with global temperatures on course to rise by a minimum of two degrees Celsius, the results could be catastrophic for the region. It is already obvious that climate change is having an effect on the Himalayan glaciers.

  • Figures from the “World Glacier Inventory” updated in December 2009 and published by the National Snow and Ice Data Center show that the entire Himalayan – Hindu-Kush ice mass has retreated over the last two decades and the melt rate seems to be increasing.

  • The research paper entitled “Glacial Retreat in Himalaya Using Indian Remote Sensing Satellite Data” by Kulkarni and Bahuguna et al, and published in Volume 92 of Current Science in January 2007 states, “The investigation has shown overall 21% reduction in glacial area from the middle of the last century.”