Tibetan Glaciers Melting at Alarming Rate, Over a Billion People at Risk Says Dalai Lama

The Tibetan Spiritual leader the Dalai Lama has said that he is concerned over the melting of glaciers in the Tibetan plateau as they seem to be melting at an alarming rate. The glaciers are a lifeline for the asian rivers, including the Indus and the Ganges. He is concerned that once the glaciers melt away, then the rivers will dry up and water supplies will be threatened. This could affect  over a billion people that live in India and some in China, as well.

His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama used research provided by Chinese experts, saying that “the Tibetan glaciers are retreating faster than anywhere else in the world”. He added that the ecology in Tibet is “something very, very essential”.

“India, a free country, I think should express more serious concern, that’s I think important. This is nothing to do with politics, just everybody’s interest, including Chinese people also,” said the Tibetan spiritual leader.

He expressed his concern not just for the Tibetan people, but because; “millions of Indians use water coming from the Himalayan glacier, so you have a certain right to show your concern about the ecology of that plateau”.

He also expressed his concern over water shortages in the region, and the strain that is starting to show on access to freshwater in both India and China.

“In terms of the ecological aspect of the issue, more than a billion people in the Asian regions maybe depend on the water that comes from rivers that originate on the Tibetan plateau. Therefore, people in the region who will be impacted by changes to the Tibetan environment have the right to express their concern at the future of Tibet,” said the Dalai Lama.

Read More: huffingtonpost

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Photo Credit:   Jan Zalud (योहन) via Flickr

3 thoughts on “Tibetan Glaciers Melting at Alarming Rate, Over a Billion People at Risk Says Dalai Lama”

  1. I refer you to http://www.theoildrum.com/node/4971 and the Chinese effort to attain clean nuclear energy from Thorium LFTR-reactors. The Pan Eurasian alliances, rapidly ‘gelling’ into a Pan Eurasian Empire with the Yuan as currency of commerce, will be powered by Thorium, not coal, not oil alone. U.S.A. however cannot break its fossil fuels habits, and remains “Stuck on Stupid” with regards to nuclear energy in the face of the recent Fuckoshima reality, where American Uranium fission designs failed all mankind in a most miserable way. China certainly not faultless, but with a redeeming quality over and above the U.S.A., is reaching hard for safer Thorium fission methods. China also working hard at developing all, Solar, Wind, Wave, hydro, Tidal, Geothermal, Gobar gas, Bio-mass, and Ocean thermal gradient means of developing domestic, local energy. U.S. so “lost in its own enchantments” so certain that they are a “Chosen People” so convinced of their “Entitlement” notions, they hardly realize the sands of time have shifted, Capital is now Asian not American, as they suffer a “controlled demolition” of their economy and even their own financiers move to the Asian markets, never to return. Will Asians really run out of water? Somehow I doubt it.

  2. Tibet had no pollution problems before the Chinese invasion of 1949-50. But under 60+ years of harsh rule by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) & unrestrained development without consultation or consent by local Tibetans, China has poisoned Tibet’s rivers & lakes, denuded Tibet’s forests, & damaged Tibet’s fragile ecosystem. The melting of Tibet’s glaciers is caused by pollution by the CCP’s “development” of Tibet. The CCP doesn’t care about the welfare of the Tibetan people, only making money by exploiting Tibet’s resources.

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