AA Edit | Clear Global Warning In Nepal-Tibet Catastrophe
As an apocalyptic wall of mud, water and debris cascaded down after a chunk of ice from a glacier estimated to measure 0.2 sq. km may have broken off at a height of 5,200 metres to fall 1,200 metres vertically into the valley below to register the equivalent of a 5.2 earthquake on the Richter scale, there would have been little time for anyone in its path to escape
A glacial collapse triggering an ice rock avalanche and causing enormous floods in regions of Nepal and Tibet that are popular with pilgrims and trekkers may have led to an unfathomable loss of lives upwards of a thousand people of many different nationalities making for an international tragedy of the biggest proportions since the tsunami of 2004.
As an apocalyptic wall of mud, water and debris cascaded down after a chunk of ice from a glacier estimated to measure 0.2 sq. km may have broken off at a height of 5,200 metres to fall 1,200 metres vertically into the valley below to register the equivalent of a 5.2 earthquake on the Richter scale, there would have been little time for anyone in its path to escape.
No early warning system could have coped to send a meaningful alert downstream as the Trishuli River (also known as Bhotekoshi) is said to have risen nine metres in less than 30 minutes, swelling into a demonic sheet of material trying to find its own level, carrying away people and destroying everything in its path — bridges, hydroelectric power station equipment, villages, besides people.
There is something frighteningly intense and sudden about glacier collapses that humans can at best choose to live and stay as far away as possible, especially in the age of global warming. The link between glacier collapses and climate change are still hypothetical, but it is well-known that global warming has been causing glacier retreats.
It has also been established that the Himalayas are warming twice as fast as the global average and Nepal is said to have lost a third of its ice over the last three decades. Such facts make it possible to link these tragedies to the human effect on the climate leading to global warming.
Ecologists and environmentalists have been warning the world for years about the fragility of the Himalayan mountain region and the deleterious effect of human activities in it adding to a large carbon footprint. Nepal’s steep and picturesque valleys may make great travel corridors, but they are not the place to be in when disaster strikes.
The scenes could have come straight out of a horror movie made in the era of computerised graphics that left behind a dystopian terrain as witness to the irresistible force of Nature. And those who were fortunate not to be in the wrong place at the wrong time could only watch on as rescue and aid bearing forces and volunteers scrambled to find survivors.
With so little credible information in terms of numbers coming out of the Chinese side of this catastrophe that hit the border region with such force, the toll could well be imagined. The tragedy was particularly poignant for Indians who have been enthusiastic visitors to holy Hindu shrines in Nepal as well as Mount Kailash near Lake Mansarovar in China that was opened to Indians only last year after a thaw in India-China relations.
Ecologists and environmentalists have been warning the world for years about the fragility of the Himalayan mountain region and the deleterious effect of human activities. It will soon enough be established that this epic tragedy was principally caused by global warming. Each riverbank will represent a danger zone and that by itself is an early warning.