Climate Change In Himalayas

The area the Himalayas are geographically located within hold the greatest amount of ice outside of the polar region, and within the region, contains the ten largest rivers in Asia, (Wilkes & Eriksson, The Melting Himalayas: Cascading Effects of Climate Change on Water, Biodiversity, and Livelihoods, 2009). Although the Himalayas contain a great source of ice due to high alpine glaciers, climate change is rapidly changing the topography of this area by accelerating the melting of ice, (Wilkes, Eriksson, Yun, Xu Jianchu, & Shrestha, 2009). The geographic area the Himalayas are located in is very diverse in regards to species and ecosystems. The region has a broad variance in weather, which in turn develops a barricade that disrupts the summer …show more content…
Vegetation changes broadly from “ subtropical semi desert and thorn steppe formation in the northwest, to tropical rainforests in the Himalayas”, (Wilkes, Eriksson, Yun, Xu Jianchu, & Shrestha, 2009). Within the greater Himalaya region, climate change is already noticeable due to the glacier reduction, which poses a threat to future downstream water supplies, (Wilkes, Eriksson, Yun, Xu Jianchu, & Shrestha, 2009). The authors of the article” The melting Himalayas” state that, “this region is very sensitive to global climate change”, (Wilkes, Eriksson, Yun, Xu Jianchu, & Shrestha, 2009). According to the intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, they have projected that average temperatures within the Himalayan region and Asian land mass will be about three degrees warmer by the year 2050, and in 2080 about five degrees warmer, (Wilkes, Eriksson, Yun, Xu Jianchu, & Shrestha, 2009). If an increase in average temperatures does occur, warming of that magnitude could cause catastrophic scenarios for the Himalayan people and the ecosystems within it, (Wilkes, Eriksson, Yun, Xu Jianchu, & Shrestha,