Can Ganga be saved sans Himalayan Glaciers?

Note: Alpine Convention provides a precedent for a similar effort to be made for saving Himalayan glaciers. The eight Alpine countries – France, Italy, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Lichtenstein, Slovenia, and Hungary – are taking action through the Alpine Convention. Besides this Framework Convention on the Protection and Sustainable Development of the Carpathians too can act as an example to initiate steps for conservation of the Himalayas. The Carpathian Convnetion aims to strengthen regional co-operation and support local projects in the mountain areas of the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Serbia and Montenegro, Slovakia and Ukraine.

The Himalayan system stretches across six countries: India, Bhutan, Tibet, Afghanistan, Nepal, and Pakistan. Some of the world's major rivers, the Indus, the Ganga, the Brahmaputra, and the Yangtze, rise in the Himalayas.

NOtably, Mekong-Ganga have historic and geographical links with Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Thailand, and Myanmar is significant since Mekong that runs through China, Myanmar, Thailand and Laos, and becomes a gigantic mass of water in the delta that covers Cambodia and southern Vietnam arises out of western Tibet.

Gopal Krishna

The Alps Divided: National Borders Altered Due to Climate Change

A major publication from the EU’s Convention on the Protection of the Alps in June 2009, revealed the dramatic effects of climate change on the Alps region. The Convention on the Protection of the Alps was established in 1991 and is headquartered out of Bolzano, Italy.

The Convention report published on 17 June 2009 is its second magisterial report. It reveals that the northern ranges of the Alps are suffering serious flooding while southern ranges are generally seeing huge reductions in snow fall. Average Precipitation levels have decreased 10 % in the south-east of the region.

The current analysis of changes to be made to the Swiss-Italian border is a prime example of such geo-political changes driven by climate change.

The Italian military has been tracking changes as glaciers on the border melt over the last thirty years. Italian Brig. General, Carlo Colella (Florence) suggests that in some places the border could change up to 100 m. It is also believed that Italy will gain territory as the glaciers in the Southern Alps are melting at a faster rate.

The border in question was last changed in 1861 when Italy became a unified state. Now the Italian government is involved in changing their national legislation to allow such a border change; Switzerland requires no such change to law.

Outside of creating complex border issues, climate change in the Alps has begun to have profound implications for agriculture and tourism. Northern villages already face flooding and water shortages and decreased snowfall in the south have already started to hit the tourism industry. Additionally, Alpine species are being driven further up the mountains; thus, exotic and invasive plant species are starting to take hold lower down in the Alpine system.

The Convention report points to the environmental burden, especially with regards to expediting climate change, from the increased demand for artificial snow by the tourism industry. This is a necessary step in order to sustain the winter sports industry, which is the economic mainstay of the area. But it is a catch-22 scenario, under which generation of artificial snow further burdens already stressed water and energy supplies.

Ultimately, changing patterns of rain and snowfall, shrinking glaciers, and raising temperatures are seen by the Convention report as the greatest challenges to Alpine villages. The Convention report cites Italy’s 178 mile-long Tagliamento (in the northeast of the country) as the only Alpine river to not suffer drastic modifications to date.

Only time will tell how national borders will change and whether climate change will lead to intense battles between tourism and the survival of Alpine villages.

There may be time and the means to manage and mitigate some of the most extreme effects of climate change in the Alps

Source: http://www.whitebandaction.org/