Melting glaciers
One example of the potentially devastating impacts of climate change is the rapid melting of glaciers in the Himalayas – the huge mountain chain that runs through the middle of Asia.
The Himalayan glaciers are giant rivers of ice that contain the largest store of fresh water outside the poles, and feed seven great Asian rivers including the Yangtze, Yellow River, Ganges, Mekong and Indus. More than a billion people rely on these glaciers to provide water for drinking, sanitation, agriculture and even power generation from hydroelectric plants.
The rapid melting of Himalayan glaciers is set to have two devastating impacts:
- First, to increase the volume of water in rivers, causing widespread flooding. Then, in a few decades the water level in rivers is set to seriously decline, leading to massive humanitarian, social and environmental problems for people in western China, Nepal and northern India – as less fresh water means less agriculture, less food and less income.
- Second, these regions are also where some of the world's most spectacular biodiversity can be found – many of the world's tigers, rhino and elephants, for example, depend on this water supply to survive.