WEBVTT - Asia’s Great Climate Frontiers: When the Himalayas heats up

0:00:00.000 --> 0:00:02.340
<v Speaker 1>This is a C. N. A podcast

0:00:04.650 --> 0:00:09.130
<v Speaker 1>up in the mountains. Climate change is remaking the rules,

0:00:09.140 --> 0:00:13.580
<v Speaker 1>temperatures are soaring in the Himalayas and that's causing glaciers

0:00:13.580 --> 0:00:17.860
<v Speaker 1>to retreat at an alarming speed threatened with floods and

0:00:17.860 --> 0:00:21.590
<v Speaker 1>dry spells. Families living in the remote mountains are now

0:00:21.590 --> 0:00:25.970
<v Speaker 1>forced to make hard choices. My name's Jack Board, Ciena's

0:00:25.970 --> 0:00:30.620
<v Speaker 1>Climate change correspondent on this special edition of the climate conversations,

0:00:30.800 --> 0:00:34.200
<v Speaker 1>I bring you stories of ecosystems at risk.

0:00:34.930 --> 0:00:38.420
<v Speaker 1>This week I traveled to Nepal to meet villages on

0:00:38.420 --> 0:00:43.449
<v Speaker 1>the brink of dying out. This is Asia's great climate frontiers.

0:00:53.040 --> 0:00:56.660
<v Speaker 1>The passage into Sam jong is a dramatic one. The

0:00:56.660 --> 0:01:01.720
<v Speaker 1>mountainside settlement emerges through a deep canyon flanked by sculpted

0:01:01.720 --> 0:01:07.080
<v Speaker 1>red mineral cliffs, snowcapped peaks in the distance encircled village

0:01:07.220 --> 0:01:10.860
<v Speaker 1>situated just kilometers from the Nepal border with Tibet.

0:01:11.560 --> 0:01:15.819
<v Speaker 1>This is land enriched by culture and myth, part of

0:01:15.830 --> 0:01:19.880
<v Speaker 1>Upper Mustang. A place once known as the country's last

0:01:19.890 --> 0:01:25.350
<v Speaker 1>forbidden kingdom. Long isolated and still protected as a conservation area.

0:01:26.660 --> 0:01:30.050
<v Speaker 1>It's a beautiful place. I can feel the freshness of

0:01:30.050 --> 0:01:31.030
<v Speaker 1>the cool air,

0:01:32.870 --> 0:01:35.840
<v Speaker 1>but the idyllic scene is not all that it seems

0:01:36.260 --> 0:01:39.810
<v Speaker 1>in recent years, the longtime residents of this village have

0:01:39.819 --> 0:01:41.250
<v Speaker 1>been heading for the exit,

0:01:45.360 --> 0:01:48.500
<v Speaker 1>the small trickle of fresh water in a dusty riverbed.

0:01:48.500 --> 0:01:51.170
<v Speaker 1>Nearby is a clue to what's happened here.

0:01:52.220 --> 0:01:56.180
<v Speaker 1>So too were the parched fields. The empty livestock circles

0:01:56.300 --> 0:01:58.870
<v Speaker 1>and the houses with padlocks on their doors

0:02:00.140 --> 0:02:03.290
<v Speaker 1>song is running dry and the families that have called

0:02:03.290 --> 0:02:06.170
<v Speaker 1>at home for generations have become a new breed of

0:02:06.170 --> 0:02:08.340
<v Speaker 1>climate migrants in the Himalayas

0:02:11.930 --> 0:02:15.570
<v Speaker 1>for as long as locals can remember a distant glacier

0:02:15.580 --> 0:02:19.510
<v Speaker 1>has fed a spring under the mountains. The annual melting

0:02:19.510 --> 0:02:23.019
<v Speaker 1>of glaciers during warmer months is a normal process that

0:02:23.020 --> 0:02:25.350
<v Speaker 1>sustains life in these remote areas,

0:02:27.030 --> 0:02:32.459
<v Speaker 1>but that natural tap has become irregular and unreliable. Many

0:02:32.460 --> 0:02:35.340
<v Speaker 1>families have abandoned sam jong. Already

0:02:35.910 --> 0:02:40.930
<v Speaker 1>nine remain though those left behind are overwhelmingly the elderly

0:02:40.940 --> 0:02:45.100
<v Speaker 1>like bucky. A woman I met unwilling to uproot in

0:02:45.100 --> 0:02:46.429
<v Speaker 1>their final years.

0:02:47.260 --> 0:02:51.109
<v Speaker 1>Bucky has lived here basically her entire life. She explained

0:02:51.110 --> 0:02:54.090
<v Speaker 1>to me what exactly was going on.

0:02:54.310 --> 0:02:57.950
<v Speaker 2>The water is getting less and less. We have so

0:02:57.950 --> 0:03:02.080
<v Speaker 2>few fields that we can plant. Now look at our fields,

0:03:02.320 --> 0:03:06.190
<v Speaker 2>they're all dry now the irrigation channel is also broken.

0:03:06.340 --> 0:03:09.389
<v Speaker 2>We used to keep a lot of animals. The horses

0:03:09.389 --> 0:03:12.530
<v Speaker 2>had their stables in the village, the cows used to

0:03:12.540 --> 0:03:16.130
<v Speaker 2>graze all over the fields and now there are fewer

0:03:16.130 --> 0:03:17.520
<v Speaker 2>and fewer animals.

0:03:18.080 --> 0:03:21.250
<v Speaker 2>I'm 65 now. So you can tell how long I

0:03:21.250 --> 0:03:24.880
<v Speaker 2>have lived here. Others have moved because in the summers

0:03:24.889 --> 0:03:28.870
<v Speaker 2>due to increasing rain, we have these flash floods coming

0:03:28.870 --> 0:03:32.950
<v Speaker 2>down the cliffs and then the water sources also drying

0:03:32.960 --> 0:03:36.880
<v Speaker 2>up also. The water is salty and so you can

0:03:36.880 --> 0:03:38.930
<v Speaker 2>get belly problems when you drink it.

0:03:39.310 --> 0:03:43.460
<v Speaker 2>Now our families are split between the two villagers in

0:03:43.460 --> 0:03:46.390
<v Speaker 2>the summer. The kids come around, but my daughter and

0:03:46.390 --> 0:03:49.980
<v Speaker 2>others are there and we're stuck here. It used to

0:03:49.980 --> 0:03:53.870
<v Speaker 2>be nice. Were quite lonely. Now

0:03:54.860 --> 0:03:58.529
<v Speaker 1>bucky's daughter sang mo joined the exodus. She and her

0:03:58.530 --> 0:04:01.340
<v Speaker 1>family live in a new village a day's walk from

0:04:01.900 --> 0:04:03.940
<v Speaker 1>life here is different.

0:04:04.170 --> 0:04:07.940
<v Speaker 1>The place is dusty, the fields are less productive winds

0:04:07.940 --> 0:04:11.400
<v Speaker 1>whip up dust from the roads and long neglected fields.

0:04:11.630 --> 0:04:14.830
<v Speaker 1>In the four years since the first re settlers arrived,

0:04:14.830 --> 0:04:18.349
<v Speaker 1>the community has been working together to make the area

0:04:18.350 --> 0:04:22.320
<v Speaker 1>more viable for raising animals and planting crops. I can

0:04:22.320 --> 0:04:26.029
<v Speaker 1>see the progress, but it's also clear that this town

0:04:26.120 --> 0:04:28.850
<v Speaker 1>isn't a mountain paradise like their old place.

0:04:29.230 --> 0:04:33.460
<v Speaker 1>Speaking to, I can sense the emotional lament about the

0:04:33.460 --> 0:04:37.880
<v Speaker 1>physical distance between her and her mother now. But this

0:04:37.890 --> 0:04:40.300
<v Speaker 1>was a matter of survival.

0:04:40.310 --> 0:04:45.219
<v Speaker 2>When we first had to leave, I was heartbroken and

0:04:45.220 --> 0:04:47.690
<v Speaker 2>more so by the thought that our Children were going

0:04:47.690 --> 0:04:51.550
<v Speaker 2>to have a tougher future somewhere new in this barren land.

0:04:51.560 --> 0:04:54.530
<v Speaker 2>But now that we have started living here, it's not

0:04:54.529 --> 0:04:55.390
<v Speaker 2>so bad.

0:04:55.690 --> 0:04:58.460
<v Speaker 2>I keep worrying if my mother is ill or how

0:04:58.460 --> 0:05:01.530
<v Speaker 2>she's doing and so I suggested she sell her goats

0:05:01.529 --> 0:05:04.850
<v Speaker 2>and move here with us. But all the older people

0:05:04.860 --> 0:05:09.490
<v Speaker 2>say that they want to keep living there.

0:05:11.029 --> 0:05:14.680
<v Speaker 1>The situation in Upper Mustang is the result of complex

0:05:14.680 --> 0:05:18.600
<v Speaker 1>changes to the water systems in the Himalayas this year.

0:05:18.600 --> 0:05:23.050
<v Speaker 1>Scientists reported that about 40% of the region's glacial mass

0:05:23.050 --> 0:05:26.750
<v Speaker 1>has been lost since the little ice age, a period

0:05:26.750 --> 0:05:30.650
<v Speaker 1>400 to 700 years ago. The rate of melting in

0:05:30.650 --> 0:05:34.860
<v Speaker 1>recent decades is up to 10 times faster than previously

0:05:35.200 --> 0:05:37.700
<v Speaker 1>and the root cause is global warming

0:05:38.779 --> 0:05:42.390
<v Speaker 1>at the same time. Climate change is triggering more extreme

0:05:42.390 --> 0:05:47.960
<v Speaker 1>rain and snow events with potential cascading consequences including floods,

0:05:48.130 --> 0:05:54.600
<v Speaker 1>landslides and lake outbursts. Mahjong has repeatedly experienced flash flooding.

0:05:54.680 --> 0:05:57.550
<v Speaker 1>Another one of the reasons many of its residents chose

0:05:57.550 --> 0:05:58.360
<v Speaker 1>to leave

0:05:59.000 --> 0:06:03.070
<v Speaker 1>worryingly, many of these shifts occurring in the Himalayas cannot

0:06:03.080 --> 0:06:07.830
<v Speaker 1>be reversed soon as Miriam Jackson from the International Center

0:06:07.830 --> 0:06:12.280
<v Speaker 1>for Integrated Mountain Development told me in Kathmandu, she's the

0:06:12.279 --> 0:06:16.560
<v Speaker 1>program coordinator for the Cryo Sphere Initiative, which is studying

0:06:16.560 --> 0:06:19.450
<v Speaker 1>climate impacts on high altitude areas

0:06:19.880 --> 0:06:22.250
<v Speaker 2>as the glaciers get smaller. First of all, there's more

0:06:22.250 --> 0:06:24.940
<v Speaker 2>enough and then after that there's less runoff. But some glaciers,

0:06:24.940 --> 0:06:27.669
<v Speaker 2>smaller glaciers have already reached the point where there's less runoff.

0:06:27.680 --> 0:06:30.260
<v Speaker 2>So some communities are already seeing this, that the water

0:06:30.260 --> 0:06:32.760
<v Speaker 2>is getting less and less and you can adapt it

0:06:32.760 --> 0:06:35.240
<v Speaker 2>to a certain point, but after a while you can't

0:06:35.240 --> 0:06:37.480
<v Speaker 2>adapt anymore. You know, even if we stop

0:06:37.505 --> 0:06:40.635
<v Speaker 2>all the emissions were basically locked into a certain amount

0:06:40.635 --> 0:06:43.125
<v Speaker 2>of change. We have to try and slow things down.

0:06:43.125 --> 0:06:45.635
<v Speaker 2>That's the main thing is to slow things down because

0:06:45.775 --> 0:06:48.034
<v Speaker 2>we can't stop it. And at the same time, we

0:06:48.035 --> 0:06:50.915
<v Speaker 2>have to look for ways to adapt to it that

0:06:50.915 --> 0:06:53.175
<v Speaker 2>we know these changes are coming and going to increase,

0:06:53.185 --> 0:06:55.155
<v Speaker 2>you know, to the end of the century at least,

0:06:56.200 --> 0:07:01.010
<v Speaker 1>experts say. If nations don't reduce global emissions moving communities

0:07:01.010 --> 0:07:04.960
<v Speaker 1>will become more common at current rates. The Himalayas could

0:07:04.960 --> 0:07:09.630
<v Speaker 1>lose two thirds of its glaciers by 2100. I spoke

0:07:09.630 --> 0:07:13.620
<v Speaker 1>with dr region back to chaos to from Kathmandu University.

0:07:13.790 --> 0:07:18.000
<v Speaker 1>I think the sifting of the whole villages gradually is

0:07:18.000 --> 0:07:19.570
<v Speaker 1>the only one option.

0:07:19.830 --> 0:07:24.240
<v Speaker 1>We can do some other options also like the rainwater harvesting,

0:07:24.250 --> 0:07:27.230
<v Speaker 1>but that may not be enough for them and it

0:07:27.230 --> 0:07:30.540
<v Speaker 1>will be more costly Also. Yes, some people don't want

0:07:30.540 --> 0:07:34.090
<v Speaker 1>to move from their original place, but first we have

0:07:34.090 --> 0:07:37.540
<v Speaker 1>to survive only then we can go to the other

0:07:37.540 --> 0:07:41.730
<v Speaker 1>like social sense, other religious cultures. First we have to

0:07:41.740 --> 0:07:44.920
<v Speaker 1>survive for that we need water if no water. I

0:07:44.920 --> 0:07:48.980
<v Speaker 1>think the shifting is the ultimate goal lighting

0:07:49.770 --> 0:07:53.750
<v Speaker 1>in upper mustang too much water is also a threat.

0:07:53.760 --> 0:07:57.010
<v Speaker 1>The evidence of a deadly flood is a daily site

0:07:57.010 --> 0:07:58.160
<v Speaker 1>in the village of chaucer.

0:07:59.050 --> 0:08:04.100
<v Speaker 1>The riverbed here resembles a rocky moonscape entirely littered with

0:08:04.100 --> 0:08:09.530
<v Speaker 1>thousands of white stones bounced down from mountains decades ago.

0:08:09.540 --> 0:08:11.530
<v Speaker 1>I've never seen anything like it.

0:08:12.210 --> 0:08:15.280
<v Speaker 1>This community was in the strike zone of a suspected

0:08:15.280 --> 0:08:20.060
<v Speaker 1>glacial lake outburst floods or gloss off in the 1980s.

0:08:20.070 --> 0:08:25.170
<v Speaker 1>After widespread damage, family relocations and a number of casualties,

0:08:25.210 --> 0:08:27.390
<v Speaker 1>the fear still, lingers.

0:08:28.680 --> 0:08:32.230
<v Speaker 1>Get up a local resident wandered out into the rockfall

0:08:32.230 --> 0:08:35.609
<v Speaker 1>area to tell me about those scary days in the past.

0:08:35.630 --> 0:08:40.480
<v Speaker 1>The flood took away so many people, houses and livestock.

0:08:40.520 --> 0:08:43.429
<v Speaker 1>It was such a tragedy. The flood brought all of

0:08:43.440 --> 0:08:47.060
<v Speaker 1>this all this used to be fields before there were

0:08:47.059 --> 0:08:50.080
<v Speaker 1>32 families living in houses across the river.

0:08:50.230 --> 0:08:53.459
<v Speaker 1>They all got swept away all the belongings along with

0:08:53.460 --> 0:08:56.660
<v Speaker 1>people got taken away. Now you see all these rocks

0:08:56.660 --> 0:09:00.079
<v Speaker 1>that the floods brought. So people live in fear because

0:09:00.080 --> 0:09:03.280
<v Speaker 1>they have already been to deadly floods. There are fears

0:09:03.290 --> 0:09:09.400
<v Speaker 1>a third one might arrive. It's dangerous. While locals cannot

0:09:09.410 --> 0:09:12.630
<v Speaker 1>be certain of the precise cause of such damaging events.

0:09:12.640 --> 0:09:17.000
<v Speaker 1>Climate science spells out reasons for the instability in the

0:09:17.010 --> 0:09:19.829
<v Speaker 1>earth and atmosphere in the Himalayas

0:09:20.250 --> 0:09:25.010
<v Speaker 1>with abnormal annual melts due to global temperature rise, glaciers

0:09:25.020 --> 0:09:28.929
<v Speaker 1>at high altitudes are feeding massive amounts of water into

0:09:28.929 --> 0:09:30.170
<v Speaker 1>surrounding lakes.

0:09:30.840 --> 0:09:34.370
<v Speaker 1>The risk of these lakes collapsing in a phenomenon called

0:09:34.370 --> 0:09:38.340
<v Speaker 1>a cloth has communities throughout the region on edge.

0:09:39.010 --> 0:09:45.130
<v Speaker 1>Today, Nepal has 21 potentially dangerous glacial lakes high up

0:09:45.130 --> 0:09:47.160
<v Speaker 1>in the mountains. They're difficult to monitor.

0:09:47.770 --> 0:09:50.100
<v Speaker 1>I wanted to see one for myself

0:09:52.110 --> 0:09:55.690
<v Speaker 1>with my nepali fixer, I take off on foot headed

0:09:55.700 --> 0:09:59.270
<v Speaker 1>for a mysterious lake high up in the mist, we

0:09:59.270 --> 0:10:04.459
<v Speaker 1>trek uphill on slippery rocks. Hour after hour, the altitude

0:10:04.460 --> 0:10:07.850
<v Speaker 1>starting to heap the pressure on my skull and leaving

0:10:07.850 --> 0:10:12.160
<v Speaker 1>me breathless. The cold is relentless. Every step becomes a

0:10:12.160 --> 0:10:12.719
<v Speaker 1>struggle

0:10:13.400 --> 0:10:18.390
<v Speaker 1>at 5400 m above sea level, about a similar altitude

0:10:18.390 --> 0:10:23.780
<v Speaker 1>to Mount Everest base camp. Finally, the aqua marine lake emerges.

0:10:28.679 --> 0:10:31.190
<v Speaker 1>It's a moment of small triumph for me and the

0:10:31.190 --> 0:10:33.470
<v Speaker 1>lake is beautiful in its fragility.

0:10:34.260 --> 0:10:38.339
<v Speaker 1>It was probably the toughest physical challenge I've ever undertaken,

0:10:39.720 --> 0:10:42.640
<v Speaker 1>what I take from it, how profound the impacts of

0:10:42.650 --> 0:10:46.120
<v Speaker 1>climate change can be on places. People simply do not

0:10:46.120 --> 0:10:47.540
<v Speaker 1>visit or think about

0:10:48.110 --> 0:10:50.670
<v Speaker 1>and what happens in parts of the Himalayas. We cannot

0:10:50.670 --> 0:10:54.400
<v Speaker 1>see matters to more than a handful of small villages

0:10:54.500 --> 0:10:59.560
<v Speaker 1>throughout south Asia, huge populations depend on glacial melt and

0:10:59.559 --> 0:11:02.689
<v Speaker 1>river flow for their drinking water and irrigation.

0:11:03.370 --> 0:11:06.250
<v Speaker 1>The risk of looming disasters is high,

0:11:06.970 --> 0:11:12.380
<v Speaker 1>Pakistan, home to more than 7200 glaciers has been devastated

0:11:12.380 --> 0:11:17.310
<v Speaker 1>recently by extreme flooding, amplified by climate change. As early

0:11:17.309 --> 0:11:23.650
<v Speaker 1>snowmelt combined with heavy seasonal rainfall in 2022 meltwater peak

0:11:23.660 --> 0:11:27.679
<v Speaker 1>met the monsoon peak, a scenario that could easily repeat

0:11:27.679 --> 0:11:30.370
<v Speaker 1>more frequently as weather patterns shift

0:11:36.760 --> 0:11:39.660
<v Speaker 1>before I leave Nepal, I'm lucky enough to attend a

0:11:39.660 --> 0:11:44.160
<v Speaker 1>special ceremony in a local family's home Across the Himalayas,

0:11:44.160 --> 0:11:47.699
<v Speaker 1>ceremonies like this are a call to the gods of nature,

0:11:47.710 --> 0:11:50.429
<v Speaker 1>locals pray for good weather ahead

0:11:51.059 --> 0:11:55.110
<v Speaker 1>but the future is cloudy and further crises are expected,

0:11:55.120 --> 0:11:58.740
<v Speaker 1>meaning a return to the ways of the past is unlikely.

0:12:02.300 --> 0:12:04.490
<v Speaker 1>This has been Jack Board, Thank you for listening to

0:12:04.490 --> 0:12:08.420
<v Speaker 1>this special episode of the climate conversations. The team behind

0:12:08.420 --> 0:12:13.220
<v Speaker 1>this podcast are Christina robert, Jacqueline chan, daniel lee, Joanne

0:12:13.220 --> 0:12:14.720
<v Speaker 1>chan and Tiffany Young