Expedition
to Tibetan Plateau reveals devastating consequences of global
warming 13/10/2005 - A 31-year-old
Tibetan woman at her home in Yellow River township. Once
she lived well from the profits off her animals. Now,
due to climate change, she is reduced to a life of poverty.
Yellow River, China — When you live off the land any change
in climate can have profound effects. This Tibetan woman
used to have a healthy herd of animals to support her
family. Now due to the lack of rain and spreading deserts
on the Tibetan plateau her income has disappeared. Try
telling her that global warming isn't a reality.
The Tibetan Plateau is often referred to as the roof of
the world, land of high peaks, glaciers and nomadic tribal
peoples. The snowy peaks and glaciers are the source of
many of Asia's mightiest rivers - the Ganges, Mekong and
China's Yellow River. This area is predicted to warm considerably
before 2100 due to global warming. The roof of the world
is melting, and melting fast.
A little less ice
So what's the big deal about a little
less ice in a place full of the stuff anyway? Actually
it's a disaster for the region now, and the ramifications
may yet be felt across the globe. We visited the region
to highlight the impacts of the changing climate of the
Tibetan Plateau.
As the area warms less rain is falling
and glaciers in the region are melting. Local communities
used to make a living of their herds of animals grazing
on lush mountain pastures. Now those pastures are fast
turning to desert due to lack of water, overgrazing and
erosion caused by new animals that are thriving in the
warmer conditions. Many local people now survive solely
on government handouts.
On our expedition to the region we
travelled on "dancing roads" distorted by melting
permafrost to meet the governor of Madoi County. In 1980,
Madoi was China's richest province due to its agricultural
wealth. It is now China's poorest. We interviewed once-prosperous,
but now destitute, farmers and saw first hand the desert
gobbling up pasture land.
Climate change is causing a cocktail
of environmental effects at the Yellow River source that
threaten an ecological breakdown. When you see the empty
wells, bridges over nothing but dry dirt, cracked ground
where there should be lakes, bare rock and sand where
it was once healthy grassland you know something is seriously
wrong.
While the immediate impacts on the
area are bad enough they pale compared to the possible
future impacts in the rest of China. The Yellow River
has fed China's people since time immemorial. Today, 120
million Chinese people, a tenth of China's population,
rely on the river, especially for irrigating crops. As
well as being known as China's 'mother river', is also
dubbed the 'cradle of the Chinese civilization'.
Now the mother river is drying up
at its source. In many places on the upper stretches the
flow is much reduced. If the flow of the river continues
to decline it threatens the food supplies for a large
part of China's population.
Alarm bell for the world
But this isn't just a problem for
China. Many of Asia's rivers begin on the Tibetan Plateau.
If it continues to dry this could affect many of these
rivers and the millions of people who rely on them. As
well as water shortages, scientists predict that rising
temperatures will reduce the rice crops that are the staple
food for more than half of the world's population.
How would the world feed millions
of people who cannot rely on locally produced rice?
The Yellow River source region is
an urgent warning that climate change is harming people
now and is going to get worse. The Yellow River story
is not just about China, it's a warning signal that we
need worldwide action on global warming. |