Water Towers

I recently wrote about many scientific issues that are affecting the country and its politics today. One criticism that I often hear when I write or speak about these things is: “Why should we care?” As someone who enjoys asking “why?” as often as possible myself, I respect that question. Most of the issues that I raised seem philosophical in nature, or, at least, so far off in the future as to not be our problem. I find that second justification used with climate change fairly often. People think that anything that would happen from raising temperatures would occur long after they are dead. However, with the spotlight shining so brightly on climate change with the upcoming summit in Copenhagen in December, it has been revealed that the glaciers in the Himalaya region are melted far faster than in any other region of the world. In fact at the current rate, they will disappear completely by 2035.

Now you might still wonder why this would be a concern. Especially to an American audience, this problem is nearly literally on the other side of the planet. One thing we do know, if that water is the most precious natural resource on the planet. Civilization as we know can’t exist without clean water supplies. The Himalayan glacier system is the largest in the world outside of the arctic. The runoff from this massive network of ice is the foundation for all of the region’s major rivers. India, China, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, and several other countries depend on this water for their household drinking water, agriculture, fisheries, and power. Some of the largest rivers are extremely significant culturally, religiously, and historically. The region is so important it is known as “The Water Tower of Asia.” Roughly 40% of the world’s total population would be affected by a sudden disappearance of these glaciers.

As the glaciers start to melt faster, the first problem these people will face is the flooding. This is already becoming a problem in some places and villages have already been destroyed. Millions of lives could be lost in the regions closest to the river sources as catastrophic flash floods tear through the region. On top of the loss of life and property, farm land and crops are destroyed as low lying farms are simply washed away and irrigation systems are overloaded and destroyed. The rich nations can hold off the famine this would cause for a while, the poorer nations would starve without aid. As the rivers began to dry up for good, any remaining sources of fresh water become exponentially more important, and expensive. In the course of human history when vital resources are scarce and held by a relative few, violence ensues. This region in specific has a history of skirmishes over water resources as several regions have harsh dry seasons. Now add in to this powder keg of an equation that three of these countries (India, Pakistan, and China) have nuclear capabilities.

So what the world is facing if nothing is done over the next 25 years is, at best, a humanitarian crisis the likes of which we have never seen before. At worst we could see literally billions (China and India each have well over a billion citizens themselves) of dead and all out war in the region. These are the kinds of problems the world faces by doing nothing about climate change. This is why we should care, and why our best and brightest should be coming up with ways to avert the crisis. And this is why we need to listen.