Tibetans Meet Climate-Change Negotiators to Discuss Tibet's Environmental Issues

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Tibet.net
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Tibetan delegates attending the crucial climate-change talks in Copenhagen, meet  representatives from Australian Greens Party on 14 December 2009/Photo:Tenzin Norbu

Dharamshala: The Tibetan delegation at the UN's climate-change conference in Copenhagen met with negotiation teams from different countries, strongly appealing to them to raise the crucial environmental issues of Tibet.
 
The Tibetan delegates spoke to climate-change negotiators from the Netherlands, Australia and Canada. So far we have contacted few only but we have made appointments with them through e-mails, Mr. Tenzin Norbu, an environmental researcher at the Dharamsala-based Environment and Development Desk, who is heading the delegation told Tibet.net.

Mr. Tenzin Norbu presented to Mr. Li. Ganjie, vice minister of ministry of environment protection of China, a scarf and a copy of the report on 'The Impacts of Climate Change on the Tibetan Plateau: A Synthesis of Recent Science And Tibetan Research', published by the Environment and Development Desk of the Central Tibetan Administration.

The misguided Chinese government’s land-use policies, which are contributing to the acceleration of global warming and environmental destruction, including degradation of the grasslands, on the fragile high-altitude Tibetan plateau. These land-use policies include the forced relocation of Tibetan nomads, construction of infrastructure, an emphasis on urbanisation despite a predominantly rural population. Tibetans are being deprived of the stewardship of their land at a time of environmental crisis.

Climate-change induced rapid retreating of glaciers on the Tibetan plateau – considered as the world's third pole, which replenishes many of Asia's major rivers, including the Indus, Ganges, Yellow, and Brahmaputra - could imperil the lives of billion people who rely on the rivers for fresh water.

Meanwhile, a new research by scientists from NASA and the Chinese Academy of Sciences said black soot deposited on Tibetan glaciers has contributed significantly to the retreat of the world's largest non-polar ice masses. Soot absorbs incoming solar radiation and can speed glacial melting when deposited on snow in sufficient quantities.

The Chinese government has been implementing policies of settling Tibetan nomads, confiscating their land, and fencing pastoral areas. Environmental activist groups say the involvement of Tibetan nomads is essential to sustaining the long-term health of the ecosystems and water resources that China depends upon. (Photo: ICT)

Temperatures on the Tibetan Plateau -- sometimes called Earth's "third pole" -- have warmed by 0.3°C ( 0.5°F) per decade over the past 30 years, about twice the rate of observed global temperature increases. New field research and ongoing quantitative modeling suggests that soot's warming influence on Tibetan glaciers could rival that of greenhouse gases.

" Tibet's glaciers are retreating at an alarming rate," said James Hansen, coauthor of the study and director of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in New York City. "Black soot is probably responsible for as much as half of the glacial melt, and greenhouse gases are responsible for the rest."

"During the last 20 years, the black soot concentration has increased two- to three-fold relative to its concentration in 1975," said Junji Cao, a researcher from the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing and a coauthor of the paper.

The study was published 7 December in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
 
"Fifty percent of the glaciers were retreating from 1950 to 1980 in the Tibetan region; that rose to 95 percent in the early 21st century," said Tandong Yao, director of the Chinese Academy's Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research. Some glaciers are retreating so quickly that they could disappear by mid-century if current trends continue, the researchers suggest.

Most soot in the region comes from diesel engines, coal-fired power plants, and outdoor cooking stoves. Many industrial processes produce both black carbon and organic carbon, but often in different proportions. Burning diesel fuel produces
mainly black carbon, for example, while burning wood produces
mainly organic carbon. Since black carbon is darker and absorbs
more radiation, it's thought to have a stronger warming effect than organic carbon.