The Thorthormi Glacier is now a lake in Bhutan

It would be a false belief if one imagined that warmer weather was appreciated in the cold mountainous areas. The consequences of the global warming is not pleasant but a disaster.

One example of what can be expected is exemplified by what has happened in Bhutan, Himalaya. The large glacier Thorthormi has melted during the last 20 years; what used to be permanent ice is now a lake. However, water is not as stable and solid as ice. There is therefore a big risk of a landslide, or rather ‘waterslide’; and when the rim around the lake eventually will burst, it will be a catastrophe with thousands of casualties, and even more homeless.

In the Himalaya the Thorthormi is not the only ‘melt down’. The ongoing tendency of melting glaciers will result in a disaster, not only in the Himalaya, but even worse in the surrounding areas at a lower altitude. Some of the big rivers will change from providing a steady supply of water, and instead they will be torrent floods during a few months of the year, but dried out rivers for about 6 months per year.

The result will most likely be that more than 100 million people in Asia will become refugees because of the climate changes.

Filed under Uncategorized | Comment (1)