Understorey Asia: Climate Emergency at the Third Pole

Apart from air quality, a paramount environmental issue for the South Asia is the state of the “Third Pole”. That’s the area with the third largest endowment of snow, ice and glaciers on earth – the Hindu Kush and Tibetan Plateau .  There’s 600 billion tons of ice at stake, and apparently it’s now melting at twice the speed of two decades ago.  With 47  glacial lakes on alert within river basins of Nepal, Tibet and India, and several major rivers of Asia taking the flow and the floods, regional cooperation seems needed.  But can action on climate change across borders be achieved in such a complex region, across its eight countries?  Thanks to Joydeep Gupta from the Third Pole online platform, Understorey brings you edited highlights from a few of the speakers at a midyear online discussion including Ken O’Flaherty, regional COP26 ambassador to Asia-Pacific and South Asia; Jairam Ramesh, former environment minister of India, MP, and chair of parliamentary committee on science, technology & environment; Malik Amin Aslam, the current environment minister of Pakistan, and climate change envoy of the prime minister ; and Jennifer Morgan, Executive Director of Greenpeace International.

Photo: CC BY-SA 3.0 Historic Eco Pad Yatra in the Himalayas in 2009, near Gumbok Rangan