A Brief Note On The Himalayas Of India

Global Warming is a significant factor contributing in China's Water Scarcity Crisis. For example, Global Warming is affecting the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau’s glaciers, which provides water for the Yangtze and Yellow river. From that, one of their major rivers, the Yellow river, frequently dries up. (Doc. A) In an

In Greenland and in the Arctic I was astonished to see that ancient glaciers are rapidly disappearing well ahead of scientific predictions. All that I have seen and learned on this journey has terrified me. For decades, scientists have struggled to get the same basic message across: global

Global warming persists as one of the world’s biggest issues today that is causing several problems that include the world’s severe climate and rising sea levels while possibly being the main cause as to why all of mankind could go extinct. This global crisis is known as the steady increase in the world’s average temperature of the earth’s atmosphere and oceans that are proven to be permanently changing the world’s climate (Live Science, 2014). This phenomenon is strongly evident as Earth’s temperature has also increased by 2 degrees Celsius since the last century. As a result of this, Canadian glaciers are melting at a higher rate of 2 to 3 feet than of what it was a decade before (Lerner, 2014). All astoundingly happening while the Artic Canadian permafrost has begun to melt (Davidson,2015). The state of this issue in Canada does not seem to be improving as validated through both the scientific evidence as well as the blatant and irrefutable observable evidence.

Farge has been tracking glaciers in Glacier National Park for 25 years. The degrading ice fields are measured and photographed often. A once famous Boulder Glacier has been left to slush, with the same still happening to many Glaciers. In the park 50 glaciers existed in the mid nineteen fifties, now only 25 are left. In 1977 Gore made a speech on Grinnell Glacier about climate change. With the once 15-20 foot drop they were worried about falling ice. Today, the drop isn’t even to your kneecap. Cloud Glacier Peak is predicted to die in 2035. The decline has led to a loss of homes for many species. Animals that live near glacier edges enjoyed the conditioned temperatures, are now losing that. With the loss of these Glacier sea levels are rising

When President Taft created Glacier National Park in 1910, it had about 150 glaciers. Since then, the number has decreased to less than 30, and those remaining have shrunk by two-thirds. Dr. Daniel Fagre (2015) predicts that within the next 30 years most if not all of the park's glaciers will melt. Glacier National Park is not the only place effected. The snow on Kilimanjaro has melted more than 80 percent since 1912. Glaciers at the Garhwal Himalaya in India are melting so fast that researchers believe that most central and eastern Himalayan glaciers could disappear by 2035. Greenlands coastal glaciers have melted to the point of no return. “These peripheral glaciers and ice caps can be thought of as colonies of ice that are in rapid decline,

In modern times, when individuals think about environmental problems, climate change seems to always be at the forefront. Whether people learned through the Paris Climate Accord or the internet about the devastating effects that a warming climate could bring, most of society can at least acknowledge that climate change is a hot political talking point. Because of this, more and more research has been focused on the effects that a changing climate could bring about. Research on the effects of climate change range from the percentage of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and its effects on global temperatures, to the rate at which glacial ice is melting and sea level rise. This documentary, On Thin Ice, is concerned with the relationship between a warming climate and the rate at which the Gangotri Glacier has been melting over several years. This film discusses the different effects that a rapidly melting Gangotri has on water scarcity in Indian villages located downstream as well as the ways that Americans could be affected by this environmental phenomenon.

Its scary to see the before and after photographs of some of these glaciers. Some of these glaciers have completely melted. If these glaciers continue to melt we will have serious freshwater shortages in the future, being that most of our freshwater is in glaciers. Our future generations will have a very hard task to deal with. This is not counting the fact that when these glaciers melt all that water goes into the sea causing the sea level to rise. This in return will cause flooding and destruction of entire communities around the globe. This is a serious problem which most of us are accepting like a boiling

Former President of the United States, Barack Obama, once said that “No challenge poses a greater threat to future generations than climate change.” In fact, scientific evidence for climate change is undeniable and the effects of climate change are beginning to be felt all around the world (“Global Climate Change”). Furthermore, evidence to support these claims for climate change can be found anywhere from the tops of mountains to ice cores drawn from the bottom of the earth. For these reasons, the causes, effects, and solutions of climate change need to be understood, so that all people of the next generation still have a suitable habitat to live in.

Discusses the environmental impact of glaciers melting in the Himalayas. Well in grumbine study he discusses how the increase in average temperature by even 1 degree Celsius would have a huge impact on the region. The first thing grumbine discusses is how climate change and melting of glaciers can sometimes be a good thing. In his research paper he discusses how the excessive amount of water in the area has contributed to the large amount of biodiversity in the region. Grumbine later in his study talks about the situation in China where the Melting of glaciers has come to them as a blessing. Grumbine states that 12% of runoff is glacier discharge which provides water 25% of the people in western China during the off season.

Remote sensing has become a very valuable tool for documenting the response of glacier to changing climate (Bamber and Kwok, 2003; Kuhn, 2007; Pellikka, 2007; Solomon et al, 2007) because the rugged terrain, inaccessibility and legendary poor weather of glacier areas has resulted in relatively few field- based studies. Indeed, in order to use glaciers and their changes as indicators of climate change, or as an early warning signal for sea level rise, remote sensing is the only tool to provide glacier change information from all the continents and from a large number of glaciers and ice sheets. On the other hands, because space borne and airborne remote sensing data provide superior cost- effective and area effective data and methods for monitoring the glaciers and their changes, part of this monitoring can be carried out by it.

Along with the deep seas, there are signs of rising sea levels. This is being contributed to the melting of Glaciers. According to National Geographic’s “The famed snows of Kilimanjaro have melted more than 80 percent since 1912. Glaciers in the Garhwal Himalaya in India are retreating so fast that researchers believe that most central and eastern Himalayan glaciers could virtually disappear

Nepal is located in the Himalayan Mountains of South Asia. India and China are surrounding its borders with China that is on its northern border while India is the neighbor to the south, east, and west. Nepal is home to 31.5 million people with Kathmandu being its largest city with 1.4 million people. In modern Nepal, it is a multiethnic, multicultural, multi religious and multilingual country. However, Hindu is the predominant religion with 90 percent. (Youngblood, 2015) Nepali is the primary spoken language although 123 languages are spoken and Nepali spills over to parts of India. (Youngblood, 2015) It is home to eight of the then highest peaks in the world, with Mt. Everest standing at the Tibetans border. (Gale, 2015) These straightforward details make up Nepal, to get a deeper understanding of the facts that make up today we must look at its history.

The Himalaya mountain range contains diverse assortment of geological structures with an important feature being the construction of back-arc basins. Through the use of two dimensional thermo-mechanical laboratory modelling the oceanic-continental and continental-continental subduction occurring at India-Eurasia margin is explained in 6 successive steps. The general make up of back-arc basin is defined with emphasis arc extension caused by surface kinetics, properties of the down thrusting slab and the effect of lateral mantle flow on this slab. These steps consequently illustrate how back-arc basins were formed during the subduction of the Tethys Ocean lithosphere and building of island arcs. The Kohistan and Ladakh island arc systems are focused on in the western Himalaya both boarded by the Main Karakoram Thrust (MKT) and the Main Mantle Thrust (MMT) which formed in the closing of the Kohistan and Shyok Suture zone back-arc basins created by these island arcs. Mineral assemblages, isotopic and rare-earth elements data is used in explaining and identifying geochemistry of the basins justifying their volcanic make up of basalts and andesites and the presence of large dikes providing evidence of a spreading axis.

In April 2015, the devastating Gorkha earthquake shook Nepal, killing thousands and injuring thousands more. Nepal’s location on the Indo-Eurasian fault line makes it a prime location for earthquakes, as well as resulting landslides and avalanches. Less than a month after the first quake, a 7.3 magnitude aftershock struck Nepal again and left the entire country in fear (Nepal earthquakes, 2015). Relief efforts quickly followed after the earthquakes, as well as the flight of thousands of Nepalis who fled the country out of fear that the earthquakes would never end.

About 9,000 glacial lakes are identified in the Himalaya of South Asia, out of which 200 lakes are identified as potentially dangerous glacial lakes and liable to burst out at any time” (Shrestha). Likewise, snowcapped mountains are turning into dark rocky mountains. It has certainly destroyed the natural beauty, although that is not what matters the most compared to other difficulties. Melting of ice in Himalayas also weakens the grip between mountain and snow which leads to avalanches. “Giant chunks of ice swept down a treacherous section of Mount Everest known as the Khumbu Icefall, claiming 16 lives in the single deadliest accident on the world’s highest peak” (Maltby). This is the result of dangerous glacial lakes caused by increasing temperature. This proves the climate change, capable of such caliber of destruction is not a myth.