According to a leading Australian broadcasting company report, the climate change on the ‘Roof of the World’ or the Tibetan Plateau is threatening life there. The impact of climate which are less evidently seen elsewhere in the world is seen taking its toll much more evidently on the ‘Roof of the World’ explained the report.
As the report began with; Climate change is sometimes discussed as a problem of the future, but on the “roof of the world”, it has already arrived, the Tibetan plateau is the largest plateau in the world where a large portion of the region is made up of permafrost, glaciers attributing to it being the major source of fresh water to rest of the Asian countries by becoming the lifeline of more than a billion people.
However, the impact of climate change is making a faster impact on the Tibetan plateau according to the report suggesting that it would have unprecedented negative on the lives of the billion people down the line.
“Climate change has caused temperatures to rise on the plateau faster than anywhere else in Asia. As a result, the region’s glaciers and grassland are thawing at an alarming rate. If melting continues, an estimated two-thirds of the plateau’s glaciers will be gone by 2050, one scientist told the Asia Society conference in 2009.” explained the report in ABC News on Wednesday.
“[The water] carries a lot of silt from the plateau downstream. This silt is needed for the rice paddies in South-East Asia … the food that is grown feeds the rest of the world.” quoted the report adding that already thousands of lakes have dried up, one-sixth of the plateau and places which once bloomed have been reduced to sand dunes.
Image: Getty/Kevin Frayer
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