Record-Breaking Himalayan Melt Worsens Pakistan’s Deadly Floods

Every year, when the weather warms up, the Indian scientist team traveled the Himalayan mountains to study the Chhota Shigri glacier in the northern state of Himachal Pradesh.
During the last half decade, they have recorded the level of snow covering, checking the temperature of the air and soil, observing the surface of the ice formation and measuring the discharge of seasonal snow disbursement that feeds the river valley below.

This year, glacial disbursement breaks the record of washing the release gauge.

“We have installed it in June and in August we could not even find remnants,” said Mohd Farooq Azam, a glasiologist at the Indian Institute of Technology in Indore.

“We have intense heat waves in the early summer when the temperature in March and April broke the 100 -year record. And we have produced a melted glacier. Our team is in the glacier last week and we have seen the disbursement of record breaking at the Himalayas.”

The unprecedented heat wave that sweeps the planet this summer melts snow and ice not only in the European Alps but in the iconic Himalayan series, where the mountains protect the biggest reserves of frozen freshwater outside the north and southern pole.

Global warming accelerates the loss of Himalayan glaciers much faster than those estimated by previous scientists, disrupting the fragile system that helps regulate the atmosphere of the earth and the main water cycle for thousands of years.

The most acute impact in Pakistan, where floods have sank agricultural land and cities, which affect more than 30 million people and killed 1,000 more than June.

There, melted glacial has added severe monsoon rainfall driven by a warm Arabian sea and the heartbreaking effects of La Nina, creating what Pakistani officials are referred to as “climate disasters.”

The flood was just the beginning.

Extreme floods often cause extreme drought. The Indus Das, which began in Tibet and flowed through Pakistan before emptying into the Arabian sea near Karachi, was twice the size of France and produced 90% of Pakistani food.

When the basin is flooded, most water flows into the sea rather than seeping into the ground, paradoxically causes scarcity of water. A World Bank study estimates that in 2050, 1.5 billion to 1.7 billion people in South Asia could be vulnerable to reduced water supply.

The consequence is ready to echo through the global economy for a long time after the flood water in Pakistan recedes, adding to the harvest litani from Brazil to France which was destroyed by extreme weather this year. But disturbances in large cryosphere also contribute to shifting global weather patterns that warm the ocean, increase sea level and intensify drought, even in China.

The Himalayas, Karakoram, and Hindu Kush mountains contain nearly 55,000 glaciers who feed the river system where more than 1.3 billion people depend on. More than 7,000 in Pakistan itself, where melted ice and snow have formed thousands of high height lakes that are vulnerable to overflowing.

“Science is very clear about the interrelationship of the sea and active water cycles. Why are these two systems important? Because they regulate the Earth’s atmosphere,” said Anjal Prakash, a Research and Professor Director at the Indian Business School in Hyderabad. “The system that regulates the earth’s climate needs to be protected.”

The heat wave that underestimated India’s record, Pakistani flood and melted acceleration in the “world roof” could shift climate negotiations in COP27, which took place in November in Egypt. There, global warming has a bad effect on the Nile, and makes life more difficult for farmers in more salty delta.

Developing countries, which are responsible for a small portion of historical greenhouse gas emissions, will encourage their cases for more funds from industrialized countries that have been prosperous for more than a century at the expense of this planet. Cash is intended to compensate for the poorer countries for side effects and help them adapt.

Pakistan is a striking example. This is classified as the eighth country that is most vulnerable to climate change, but contributes 1% to global gas emissions that warm the planet, according to Mohsin Hafeez, Pakistani representative at the International Water Management Institute.

“Pakistan must be more vigilant and take more steps to build capacity to deal with climate change,” said Hafeez. ” But Pakistan cannot manage himself. “

Floods and drought have affected human civilization since ancient times, but they increased in the frequency and intensity when the planet was warm.

When the earth heats up, more water evaporates and is captured in the atmosphere, creating drought and, when it finally rains, bursts. In Pakistan, which has received annual heavy rain, that means severe floods will become more frequent. The period from January to July 2022 was the warmest start to sixth to the calendar year for Globe in a record that will return 143 years, according to the US National Environmental Information Center.

The crisis has triggered a lender’s call to forgive Pakistan’s debt to help him overcome it. Even before flooding, the country wrestled with financial and political chaos. This gets a loan of $ 1.2 billion from this week’s international monetary fund to avoid the default that will soon occur.

Flood damage, however, is worth more than $ 10 billion, according to Finance Minister Miftah Ismail, equivalent to almost 3% of the country’s gross domestic product last year. The circling waters have returned the economy, affecting millions of hectares of agricultural land, including about 40% of the valuable cotton plants in the country in the worst Sindh Province, according to Minister of Planning Ahsan Iqbal.

In less developed countries such as Pakistan, where large populations and widespread poverty stretching government resources, there is also chronic investment in the defense of floods and old dams and canals that are built to irrigate drier areas.

Lack of investment means Tarbela and Mangla reservoirs on both sides of Islamabad have become so choking with mud sweeping from the mountains that they are less able to withstand flood water and prevent inundation further downstream.

Pakistan might get help to help protect those who are displaced, but their financial problems means that there will be no one left to invest in the infrastructure.

As chair of the group of 77, a coalition of 134 Developing Countries, Pakistan, Along with India and Others, should make a case for loss and damages from these extreme weather events at cop27, according with climate analysis.

“This year’s flood is a nickname for everyone,” Saeed said. “This is the effect of Celsius 1.1 degrees Celsius. The result is a climate event that is outside the level of low -income countries.”

Climate hours continue to beat even at the highest peak. The International Center for the Development of Integrated Mountains in Nepal predicts the Himalayas can lose 64% of their ice in 2100 – in human life – re -forming the face of the mountains that have inspired human efforts.

Hindu Kush Himalayas, which stretches from Afghanistan to North Myanmar, is home to the iconic peak, including Mount Everest and K2, which has attracted the generation of explorers and climbers. In fact it changes.

Snow and ice crashed into villages -mountainous villages, leveling hotels and summer encouraged officials in Nepal to say that they plan to move the base camp for the expedition of Mount Everest from the khumbu glaciers who were running low when the gaps were increasingly appearing in the area in the area in the area in the area in the area. Where is the climber sleeping. They tell the BBC that they will move the site to a lower height where there is no ice throughout the year.

“This year’s heat waves and massive floods in Pakistan are warnings,” said Azam, Indian glasiologist. “This is the point where we humans must return.”