Living through the Himalayan thaw
GLACIERWORKS
Global warming is causing the Himalayan mountains to melt at an accelerated rate.Melting glaciers and receding snowlines are the most dramatic visible proof of increasing temperature and they are happening before our eyes within a generation. Many glaciers have turned into lakes and there are melt pools where there were once snowfields.
The Kathmandu-based International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) and GlacierWorks have come together to organise the Climate+Change exhibition to mark ICIMOD’s 30th anniversary and to make the Nepali public aware of the effects of climate change on the mountains.
The Art Council venue has enormous panoramic photographs of Mt Everest, Khumbu Glacier,Cho Oyu that are nearly two stories high. They depict dramatic loss of ice cover, the retreat of glaciers is starkly visible.
In 1985, the Dig Tsho glacial lake near Thame burst and the flood down the Dudh Kosi killed 12 people and destroyed bridges, trails, and the $1.5 million hydropower plant in Namche Bajar.
Nare glacial lake located below the southern slope of Mt Ama Dablam. In 1977, the moraine holding the lake failed and caused severe erosion to the downstream area.
The exhibition will be on for five months and also has before and after pictures of images taken in the 1950s. There are stunning images of the mountains, glaciers, snowfields, lakes, and moraines. The exhibition explores the many facets and drivers of change in mountains, including the accelerated melting of glaciers because of the deposition of soot particles from pollution. There are also profiles of mountain dwellers and those downstream who are responding to new challenges.
E.O. WHEELER/ROYAL GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY
CHANGE OF STATE: The East Rongbuk glacier near Mount Everest in 1921 and again in 2008. Global warming is causing the Himalayan permafrost
to melt at an accelerated rate.
DAVID BREASHEARS/GLACIERWORKS
“Mountains are water towers for billions of people in Asia, so this exhibition will be a great opportunity for everyone to learn about the state of mountains and glaciers,” says Joseph Shea glacier hydrologist at ICIMOD. The exhibition will be especially useful for educational tours for Nepal’s schools and colleges.
Climate+Change
Nepal Art Council Babar Mahal
11 December 2013-April 2014.
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MELTDOWN
Climbing in climate change
People in change
Dawa Steven Sherpa
Khumjung, Entrepreneur and mountaineer
What Dawa Steven Sherpa saw while climbing Everest became the inspiration behind Eco Everest, an annual expedition to clean up the mess left behind by previous climbers. The son of a Sherpa father and a Belgian mother, Dawa likes to say: “I don’t want the melting snow from the land of my father to drown the land of my mother.”
He says the people of the Khumbu live in constant fear of glacial lake floods. His message to the industrialised nations is: “You created the problem, provide us with guidance and assistance needed to find a solution.”
Pasang Dolma Sherpa
Pangboche, Yak herder
PICS: NAYANTARA GURUNG KAKSHAPATI
Pasang Dolma’s brother-in-law sold his share of land and pastures to start a business in Kathmandu. Her husband has climbed Everest four times, but after each mountaineering season, he lives with their family’s yak herd in remote pastures. Pasang Dolma is spending her first year with the herd.
She has heard of the Imja Lake upstream. “If Imja bursts, it will be during the monsoon, but we won’t be here then,” she says matter-of-factly. “No, I am not scared.”