Glaciers retreating in Asia

8/25/2010 10:33:00 AM Many of Asia’s glaciers are retreating as a result of climate change. This retreat impacts water supplies to millions of people, increases the likelihood of outburst floods that threaten life and property in nearby areas, and contributes to sea-level rise. The U.S. Geological Survey, in collaboration with 39 international scientists, published a […]

Time short for Ladakh flood victims as winter looms

By Staff WritersLeh, India (AFP) Aug 16, 2010 Winters come harsh and early in India’s Himalayan region of Ladakh, where the waning summer spells more hardship for thousands left homeless by devastating flash floods. In Ladakh’s main city, Leh, around 800 families lost everything in the torrent of mud and water that invaded their homes […]

Fatal cloudburst devastates Himalayan desert town

By Anil Ananthaswamy 17 August 2010 15:12 Even as the world’s attention was focused on the floods in Pakistan, a rare and extreme cloudburst devastated the Himalayan town of Leh in Ladakh, India – normally one of the driest regions on Earth. Heavy rainfall is common elsewhere in the Himalayas, but not in Ladakh. The […]

Graph of the Day: Unusually Intense Monsoon Rains, 1 – 9 August 2010

Caption by Holli Riebeek12 August 2010 The first week of August 2010 brought extreme flooding and landslides to many parts of Asia. By August 11, floods in the Indus River basin had become Pakistan’s worst natural disaster to date, leaving more than 1,600 people dead and disrupting the lives of about 14 million people, reported […]

20 million homeless in Pakistan flooding – More heavy rains forecast

By Amanda Hodge, South Asia correspondent, The AustralianAugust 16, 2010 12:00AM CHOLERA surfaced in Pakistan yesterday as the estimate of people made homeless by flooding climbed to 20 million. UN chief Ban Ki-moon landed in a Pakistan Air Force jet at Chaklala air base yesterday morning, local time, for talks with President Asif Ali Zardari […]

Photos show dramatic shrinking of Mount Everest glaciers

By Louise Gray, Environment CorrespondentPublished: 12:42PM BST 18 Jul 2010 The two pictures show an “alarming” retreat in ice over more than 80 years. The first was taken in 1921 by British mountaineer George Mallory, who later died trying to conquer Everest. The Asia Society commissioned the same picture to be taken of the main […]

Climate change threatens food supply of 60 million people in Asia

ScienceDaily (June 18, 2010) — According to an article by three Utrecht University researchers published in the journal Science on 11 June, climate change will drastically reduce the discharge of snow and ice meltwater in a region of the Himalayas, threatening the food security of more than 60 million people in Asia in the coming […]

Pakistan villages evacuated due to imminent glacial lake outburst flood

24 May 2010 13:28:16 GMT Thousands are fleeing their homes amidst fears of flooding as a breach of the Attabad Lake in northern Pakistan looks imminent. An estimated 13,935 people (1,747 families) from 39 villages have been displaced following an avalanche which blocked the Hunza River farming a19km by 80-metres deep artificial lake in Attabad, […]

‘Peace depends on water’: A Himalayan village builds artificial glaciers to survive global warming

As glaciers disappear in the rain shadow of the Himalayas, one man is helping farmers irrigate their fields by storing water in an innovative way By Gaia Vince    LEH, INDIA—In the high-altitude desert of the Indian trans-Himalayas, one man is buying time for villagers suffering from global warming by creating artificial glaciers. The ancient kingdom […]

Rivers cause rising tension between Pakistan and India as climate changes

By Manipadma Jena 12 Apr 2010 15:58:00 GMT ISLAMABAD (AlertNet) – A 1960 trans-boundary water sharing agreement between India and Pakistan has stood the test of two wars and various periods of unease. Climate change, however, may prove the toughest test of the Indus River deal, observers say. … Pakistan’s meteorological department has already recorded […]

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