Source: EDD
Today, climate change and its impact is a grave concern to the
entire world and one that can no longer be ignored. Such a change is not an
inexorable force of nature but in fact, has known human causes and available
solutions to restore climatic stability.
After Arctic and Antarctic, the Tibetan Plateau is Earth’s
largest store of ice and a hotspot of climate change. Due to its unique
geographical location and high altitude, Tibetan Plateau faces rapid changes in
its weather patterns and ecosystems in more extreme ways than other parts of
the world. The Plateau has been warming three times as fast as the global
average and its glaciers are shrinking more rapidly than anywhere else.
Despite its cold environment, for thousands of years the
Tibetan people inhabited this plateau and created cultural landscapes based on
the principles of simplicity and non-violence, in harmonywith the environment.
The significance of the Tibetan Plateau is clearly evident from
different names being used byscientists such as, ‘The Third Pole’, ‘The Water
Tower of Asia’, ‘The Roof of the World’ and ‘The Barometer of Asia’.
With an average elevation of 4,500 meters, the Plateau contains
over 46,000 glaciers covering anarea of 105,000 sq. km, and is the highest,
largest, and coldest plateau on Earth. It is surrounded by the mighty Himalayas
in the south, Kunlun Mountains in the north, and Hindu Kush and Pamir ranges in
the west.
The glaciers, snow capped mountains, permafrost soils and
alpine wetlands of the Tibetan Plateau hold a large reserve of carbon. If not
managed properly they could become a source of greenhouse gases.
The rivers originating from Tibet have been the lifeblood of
Asian civilization as ancient societies have developed their lifestyles around
these great rivers. Today almost half of the world’s population is dependent on
the water coming from Tibet. As a result Plateau’s impact is not only regional,
but also global.
The plateau plays an important role in generating and
regulating the Asian monsoon. It heats quickly in spring and summer, diverting
the jet stream, establishing a steep pressure gradient that draws monsoon
clouds deep inland into the heart of Eurasia.
The Tibetan Plateau is a unique biodiversity zone with over
100,000 high altitude plant species, 12,000 species of vascular plants, 532
species of birds, 132 identified minerals etc.
The prevailing global warming and the land use changes over the
Tibetan Plateau are leading to a series of interconnected environmental
concerns like meltdown of glaciers, degradation of permafrost layers, changes
in the river hydrology, drying up of wetlands, shrinking of lakes, degradation
of grasslands and displacement of Tibetan pastoral nomads.
This multi-faceted
environmental degradation further enhances warming process and adversely affects
the Plateau’s climate, its neighbors and the world at large.
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