KATHMANDU, April 22: Reports have shown that average temperature rise in the Himalayan region is six times more than the global average. This fact reveals a potentially disastrous situation for this region that requires various adaptation strategies.[break]
“While the yearly global temperature rise due to global warming is 0.01 degree Celcius, the average temperature rise in the Himalayan region is 0.06 degree,” said Ngamindra Dahal, energy and climate change coordinator at National Trust for Nature Conservation.
He was making a presentation at the United World Trade Center in Kathmandu on Wednesday.
Manang temperature reaches minus 22 degrees Celsius
“We will be the first to feel the effects of Global Warming,” he added.
The effects of global warming have already been seen in the form of glacier melting in the high Himalayas. Comparing two pictures of a glacier in Manang, Dahal pointed out that trees were growing in a space where there was a glacier 50 years ago.
Apart from this, glaciers are turning into glacial lakes, with a potential to burst in the near future. According to a study carried out by the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development, there are 20 glacial lakes in Nepal that are “extremely dangerous”. Sixteen of these glaciers are in the Koshi Basin.
Studies also show that temperature rise in the Himalayan region has led to rainfall in places where it used to snow in the past.
“Houses in Mustang that were designed to handle snowfall are being destroyed due to heavy rainfall, hampering the livelihood of locals there,” Dahal said.
Reports also show that high altitude grazing grounds are drying, heat and cold waves are being a common phenomenon and extreme weather patterns are coming into effect.
Thus the only way to be able to handle the effects of global warming, according to experts, is to learn ways to adapt to these extreme environmental changes.
