Ice melts in Tibet and threatens Vietnam

A series of glaciers on the Tibetan Plateau are melting and that situation could have a negative impact on Vietnam and many other Asian countries.

Glaciers on the Tibetan plateau are melting too fast

Because the temperature is at least four times higher than anywhere in Asia, it is likely that the Tibetan Plateau will soon lose most of the glaciers and ice in the ground, affecting water supplies throughout Asia, homes. Chinese science warns.

People often call the Tibetan Plateau the "roof of the world". It is about the same size as Western Europe and supplies water to nearly 2 billion people in Asia through large rivers like Yangtze, Mekong, Salween, Indus, Brahmaputra and Yellow River.

A meadow on the Tibetan plateau.(Photo: AP).

Due to the impacts of climate change, glaciers and grasslands are shrinking very fast , desertification spreads, rainfall in the area becomes erratic, water levels in large rivers decrease and the soil layer closes. permafrost is melting.

Some studies demonstrate the melting of glaciers in Tibet, the largest source of freezing water outside the two polar regions, has caused many environmental consequences locally and globally - including heat waves in Europe.

Glaciers are melting with increasing speed

Chinese officials estimate that about 14.5% of frozen water on Earth exists in Tibet. Although the researchers made different assumptions about the cause of the glaciers melting, they agreed that their disappearance rate was increasing.

In April, Xinhua reported that the area of ​​glaciers disappearing every year is 247km ² , and about 7,600km of ² glaciers - equivalent to 18% of the total area of ​​glaciers in Tibet - have melted into the country since the decade. 50.

Many countries in Asia will be negatively affected as the glaciers on the Tibetan plateau shrink.(Photo: softpedia.com).

Zhang Mingxing, an official in Tibet, confirmed that the glacier at the foot of Mount Everest, which is 5,200 meters above sea level, has long since disappeared.

"Only the rocks that were once used to be glaciers, " Xinhua quoted him.

The results of a study on Tibetan glaciers show that carbon from forest fires, the burning of rice fields and the kitchens of the people in India caused the glaciers to melt. However, scientists claim that the phenomenon of global temperature rise is the main culprit.

Tibetan people have noticed that the temperature has changed quite strongly since the 1980s. A Tibetan American was shocked by the impact of the weather on the way people wear costumes when he returned to Lhasa city."When I lived in Lhasa before, people rarely left the house with a shirt. But now they walk around with shorts , " he said.

In 2010, National Geographic reported that the width of a glacier in Tibet decreased by 300m per year.

In 2009, Qin Dahe, a leading Chinese expert on glaciers, warned that glaciers on the Tibetan Plateau are melting at a faster rate than anywhere else in the world. He predicts that, in the near future, that situation will increase the number of floods and landslides.

"In the far future, Asian water supplies will run out," he said.

Many researchers predict that most glaciers in the Himalayas will disappear within 20 years.

Melting glaciers are the source of water for some of the world's largest rivers flowing through China, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia.

"Water is the most important resource for the region. It is a key factor to eradicate poverty, electricity production, agricultural development and many other activities," said R. Rangachari, a scholar of the Research Center. Save Indian Policy and be the former Minister of Indian Water Resources, speak.

A climate change researcher on the Tibetan Plateau of the Chinese Academy of Sciences confirmed that the water level of the Yangtze and Yellow River rivers has decreased due to the melting of glaciers.

"Every major river in Asia receives water from Tibet and the amount of water in the plateau is decreasing , " he said.

Climate change and environmental pollution are two of the reasons glaciers melt.(Photo: China Daily).

China's Ministry of Water Resources announced in 2013 that about 28,000 small rivers in China abruptly disappeared in 2011. Although Beijing does not make specific assumptions, researchers have identified warming. on the Tibetan Plateau is one of the causes.

"Another important factor is the melting of ice in permafrost has led to depletion of underground water , " said one researcher who declined to comment.

The latest study conducted by the Chinese Academy of Sciences shows that more than 80% of the underground ice in Tibet will disappear by 2100 and 40% of the ice will melt in the near future.

The risk of conflict increases because of melting ice

A series of changes on the Tibetan Plateau worried experts about water-related conflicts that could erupt in the region, especially the conflict between India and China.

To limit the negative impact on the environment, China has built many dams along many rivers originating from Tibet, despite protests from many countries downstream.

Salween is currently the only river in Tibet that has not been blocked by Chinese dams. Beijing built a dam on the Yarrlung Tsangpo River, the source of water for the Brahmaputra River in India.