Himalayan Glacial Lakes
By Dr Arvind Kumar
There are “8,000 glacial lakes in the Hindu Kush Himalayas alone, 203 of which they have declared to be extremely dangerous.” According to European Parliament’s Resolution of 27 September 2011, fast cuts in black carbon are needed to reduce threats from hundreds of dangerous glacial dams in the Himalayan Hindu Kush and the devastating flash floods caused when these dams burst. The Resolution recommends fast-action to cut black carbon, as well as ground-level ozone and its precursor methane, to slow glacial melt and reduce the threat of glacial lake outburst floods. Nirj Deva, Chair of the Committee on Development during debate that called for an “international agency of the United Nations to be created, through the EU’s support, so that India, Pakistan, China, Nepal, Bhutan and other countries can come together under the auspices of the UN” to reduce such risks.
The European Resolution relies on recent evidence from the United Nation Environment Programme and World Meteorological Organization showing that cutting these two local air pollutants could cut the rate of global warming in half during the next 30 to 60 years. The UNEP/WMO report also calculates that such cuts can save the more than two million lives lost to black carbon every year, and avoid damage to crops. These strategies would complement measures to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. The Resolution “stresses that black carbon remains as prevalent a cause of glacial retreat as carbon dioxide” and “urges immediate action be taken with a view to reducing black carbon and methane emissions, … as a fast-action method of halting glacial and snow melting.” The Resolution calls for a Global Action Plan to reduce short-lived climate forcers, as well as other measures to reduce flood risks from climate change.
