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World's tallest peaks most vulnerable to climate change
Sunday December 04, 2011 08:03:31 PM,
IANS
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Pretoria: The Himalayan
region which is home to the world's tallest peaks, including Mount
Everest, is particularly vulnerable as rising temperatures disturb
the balance of snow, ice and water, threatening 1.3 billion people
living downstream along Asia's major river basins, the head of a
research body says.
"The Hindu Kush-Himalayan (HKH) region is like a gentle giant.
While physically imposing, it is one of the most ecologically
sensitive areas in the world," said David Molden, director general
of Kathmandu-based International Centre for Integrated Mountain
Development (ICIMOD).
"We must meet the intensity of climate change in these mountains
with an equal intensity of will to mitigate and to adapt to the
impacts," he added, according to an ICIMOD statement.
The three reports, published by Sweden-funded ICIMOD project on
the occasion of the Mountain Day, are the most comprehensive
assessment to date on climate change, snow and glacier melt in
Asia's Himalayan region.
They also represent the first authoritative data on the number and
extent of glaciers and the patterns of snowfall in the world's
most mountainous region.
The region offers livelihoods to 210 million people and indirectly
provides goods and services to the 1.3 billion people living in
river basins downstream who benefit from food and energy.
Rich in biodiversity, the region is home to some 25,000 plant and
animal species, and contains a larger diversity of forest types
than the Amazon.
The HKH region home to 30 percent of the world's glaciers, has
been called the Third Pole, but there are scant data on these
glaciers.
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