Climate Change vs. the Mighty Himalaya

The earth’s thermostat seems to have lost its bearings and the Himalayan region has seen disruption in critical monsoon timings and a marked retreat of glaciers.
There are nearly 3000 glaciers and 1500 glacial lakes in Nepal above 11,480 ft (3500 m). It is predicted that a 4°C rise in the global average temperature, which is within some projections for the end of this century, would eliminate these glaciers. According to the Nepal’s Department of Hydrology and Meteorology (DHM), the temperature in Nepal’s Himalaya may be increasing by an average of 0.04° Celsius per year.
 

Imja Glacier in the Everest Region of Nepal is considered to be one of the fastest-retreating Himalayan glaciers at approximately 243 feet (74 m) per year, and the decline is attributed to solar warming. Imja Tsho Lake has increased in size alarmingly over the last half century from mere melt ponds in the 1950s to a lake of nearly 0.38 square mile (1 km²), or 247.11 acres, with an estimated volume of 47 million cubic yards (35 million m³) of water and rising. Its moraine of rock and ice is considered unstable and a threat for a glacial lake outburst flood (GLOF).

If extensive, a GLOF could result in severe wreckage downstream. A 2002 report by the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) and the UN Environment Program puts twenty of Nepal’s glacial lakes at risk for a GLOF, and Imja Tsho is considered the worst danger. According to Nepal’s Department of Hydrology and Meteorology (DHM), there have been more than fourteen GLOFs in Nepal. The most recent in the Everest Region was recorded in September 1998, which caused flooding on the Inkhu Khola. Other floods in that area include ones that damaged parts of the village of Ghat in 1985 and Pangboche in 1979. In May 2012, a massive landslide near Machhapuchhre (Fishtail Peak) in the Annapurna Region caused flooding on the Seti River and dozens of people perished.

Climate change is making its mark on mountaineering, too, “Climbing is becoming more and more dangerous because glaciers and snow are melting and rock is appearing and avalanches are more frequent. The impact is visible in the high Himalaya,” Ang Tshering Sherpa, President, Nepal Mountaineering Association.