This is a part of the volunteer work I did for the CONTACT magazine, in McLeodganj.
Climate Change: Tibet
*representation
of detailed article by Leslie Hook in the September 2, 2013 at Financial
Times/Tibet.net
Here is a quick Fact: One in five people in the world get their water from river systems that are linked to the Tibetan plateau.
Tibetan plateau governs the Asian weather system, brewing the
monsoonal rains each summer and steering westerly wind currents. Its lakes,
glaciers and wetlands act like a huge water tower for all of Asia. Quite
rightly, the plateau is often referred to as “The Third Pole“ by the scientists.
Climate change has gripped the Tibetan plateau with fervor. Just
like the North Pole, the Tibetan plateau has been warming much faster than the
rest of the world over the past 50 years. In fact, Of the 46,000 glaciers on
the Tibetan plateau, many are shrinking.
Signs of global warming surfaced in 1980s and 1990s. The
plateau observed severe impacts in ecological balance. Lakes started drying up,
Pika mammals populations increased at exponential scales. Valuable resources
such as caterpillar fungus: a medical aphrodisiac often referred to as “Himalyan
Viagra” has been depleting.
In 1997, the Yellow River dried up over a 700km stretch. – it
lasted more than eight months.
While the impact of global warming is apparent, the government
and the locals seem to be in a clear disagreement over pointing out the cause.
In order to deal with the massive impact of climate change, a
region known as the “Three River Source”, or Sanjiangyuan in Chinese was
identified by the government and it began to come up with policies to protect
it.
The government decided that the region’s traditional Tibetan
herders had to go.
Across all Tibetan areas more than 600,000 nomadic herders
have been moved into government-built towns and are given stipends. Herders say
the government stipend is barely enough to live on.
Aggressive steps by the state include use of toxins to
control pika, setting up of fences at grazing grounds and even artificial
rains.
More and more research has shown that the science behind the
state’s aggressive policies is misguided or incomplete. The government
has already spent more than a billion dollars on “restoring” the plateau.
The government however, is ready with the next plan of Rmb20
billion. It will intensify its aggressive invasive policies. The locals for now
have little choice but to adapt.
