It would be unfair to say that only some have been victimized by the changing climate, but what would be fair to say is that some parts of the world have tougher times than the others, and the Himalayas are one of those. Studies have shown that mountains across the globe in general, and the Himalayas specifically, are threatened by climate change. This needs to be looked into seriously.

Mountain regions have experienced above-average warming in recent years, with significant implications for the eco-system goods and services they provide to humanity. These are especially critical for the survival of  poor and indigenous communities. “Scenarios of climate change in mountain regions are highly uncertain and poorly understood, with large gaps in knowledge,”say the mountain experts.

Though there has to be more research on the mountains to find out the realities of climate change, the thing agreed upon globally by scientists is that the melting of the glaciers in the Himalayas is at a higher rate than in the past, and if this continues at the same pace one of the largest freshwater systems on the earth, also known as the water tower of Asia, would no longer be sustainable incoming decades.

The Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the scientific body of UN climate change framework convention, said that  glaciers have melted significantly, and that this will accelerate and affect the water supply from major mountain ranges where more than one-sixth of the world population currently lives.

Though threatened, the mountains have not yet received global attention due to various reasons. The most debated issues among the scientists is that there has been scant research regarding the Himalayas and climate change, as it is one of the most difficult terrains in the world, with huge diversity. Experts have urged that there is no need to wait, but start taking actions to fight climate change as agreed upon by the scientists. “There is the urgency to act to fight climate change as the Himalayas are in threat and for this, regional cooperation is the need of the hour,” said Dr. Andreas Schild, outgoing Director General of International Center for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), an inter-governmental agency based in Kathmandu that is the knowledge center for eight Himalayan countries, including Nepal.

Mountain countries like Nepal are demanding that climate change issues in the Himalayas be taken more seriously. They have started a project to bring diverse mountain initiatives into a common platform. This is very ambitious. But in the words of Nelson Mandela, repeated at the opening of this year’s summit in Durban, “It always seems impossible until it’s done.”  The dream of Nepal could transform into reality if there is hard work and excellent diplomacy.

It’s not only Nepal that’s in a tight fix with climate change, of course. The Himalayan range extends 3,500 km over all or part of eight countries from Afghanistan in the west to Myanmar in the east. It is the source of ten large Asian river systems – the Amu Darya, Indus, Ganges, Brahmaputra (Yarlungtsanpo), Irrawaddy, Salween (Nu), Mekong (Lancang), Yangtse (Jinsha), Yellow River (Huanghe), Tarim (Dayan), and provides water, eco-system services, and the basis for livelihoods to a population of around 210.53 million people in the region. The basins of these rivers provide water to 1.3 billion people, a fifth of the world’s population.

With these facts and figures, urgent action is necessary to tackle climate change by all the countries in the Himalayan region, in a consolidated form and also at the global level by all the mountain countries.

Though the countries with mountains have various stands in the global forums like climate change meetings, and are linked with various groups of countries like least-developed countries, developing countries or developed countries, the agenda on mountains should be common if we really want to save the elegant Himalayas and other beautiful mountains across the planet. It is not that mountains have been totally neglected, but what we need now is common efforts to save the mountains.

To be heard globally, it is time that all countries came together with urgency in the global forums like climate summit in Durban, where the world has been searching for solutions for the problems created by climate change.

Tired of suffering in silence, rural women from across southern Africa, and many from further away, gathered outside the Inkosi Albert Luthuli Convention Centre in Durban on Friday to make their voices heard during the COP17 climate change conference.

Shouting slogans, ululating and singing protest songs, they held a rally before marching through the streets around the centre, watched closely by police.

Nora Mlondoboza (51) from Mopani, near Tzaneen in Limpopo, explained: “We are here to make our voices heard by those people who are sitting there deciding our fate, deciding how we are going to live, how our future is going to be. We want them to take decisions that are going to benefit all of us, not them only.

“Getting together as women, we are sharing the similar experiences and challenges we face – all over Africa. Even in India women are experiencing the same problems we are having. As rural women, we have nothing. We cannot speak alone – if we are united, those people who are seated there, they are going to listen.”

With water shortages on the rise across the globe, people in dry areas suffer most. And women with families to feed feel it most. Margerieta Pieterse (46), from Rawsonville in the Western Cape, said: “We didn’t get rain in the winter. Rain only came in September, and vegetables grew ripe too quickly. It was very strange.

“Water is our biggest problem. We were given land to grow food by the municipality, but that land is far from our houses and it’s very dry, it needs a lot of water. And we have to pay for that water – they put in a meter to see how much we use. We have a right to use water – we grow vegetables not just for ourselves but to feed our whole community. We sell it cheaply because so many people are unemployed. Even if a man has a job, he earns almost nothing.

“We can’t afford healthy food so our kids get sick. Sometimes we don’t have clean water for days at a time. The soil is polluted with chemicals and so is the food that grows from that soil. If you eat it, the chemicals get into your body. That’s why we see so many different illnesses today.

“Government really needs to do something about it…”

Mount Everest region in Nepal

DURBAN, South Africa–Himalayan snow cover is little more than half of that previously estimated, according to first-ever comprehensive research on snow cover in the region released at UN climate talks here.

The study found that there are 54,252 glaciers in the Himalayas covering 60,054 sq km. Until now it was estimated that the snow covered area was about 110,000 sq km.

The report was released by the Chairman of Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change — the United Nations climate change scientific body — Rajendra Pachauri, and Nepal’s Environment Minister Hem Raj Tater at a programme to mark Mountain Day here on the sidelines of the climate change meeting. Negotiators from 195 countries have gathered here to discuss climate change.

“The study used a standardised methodology based on analysis of satellite images to prepare first-ever comprehensive inventory of glaciers in the 10 major river basins in the Himalayas,” said Samjwal Bajracharya, glacier expert at International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development, a regional inter-governmental agency that conducts research on glaciers in eight countries of the Hindukush Himalayan region, including Nepal. “It took about three years to come up with the results.”

The study looked at ten years of data on snow recorded by moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer, which presents an account of snow mapping and monitoring initiatives at different levels from regional to global. The report claims it gives comprehensive baseline information for Himalayan glaciers in which there is very little climate change data available.

“Longer-term data are needed in order to understand the relation between snow cover and climate change but the ten-year snow cover study has shown regional variations,” added Bajracharya.

According to the study, the maximum annual average snow cover area was in 2005 and the minimum was in 2010. “There hadn’t been any mapping of the glaciers in the past. The previously stated figures were all estimates. Now we can say the actual snow covered area in the region,” claimed Bajracharya who has been involved in glacier study for more than a decade.

The IPCC had mentioned in its controversial report published in 2007 that the glaciers in the Himalayas would disappear by 2035. It was later admitted to be a mistake. However, Pachauri said that it could undoubtedly be said that the glaciers were melting at a rapid rate and the mistake is only the year that was mentioned in the report.

Experimenting with eco-friendly fashion at California College of Art

Sometimes we must travel to the other side of the world to discover something in our backyard. Such was my case in sighting California’s Arts and Craft’s Waterworks project here at COP 17.

As I first explored the UN’s Durban campus early this week, I scanned the aisles of exhibitors: African countries, non-profits of every flavor, clean energy projects, NGOs. I ‘tripped’ as I spotted “CCA”. The signage was boldly familiar among a sea of new acronyms.

I had that moment of slow motion processing as I reconciled something unexpected. I knew ‘CCA’ as California College of the Arts, a highly regarded design school based five miles from my home in San Francisco. An Executive MBA (www.presidioedu.org) colleague, Nathan Shedroff, runs their design MBA. But it seemed surprising that they would be showcasing here in Durban.

CCA is here, with good reason. They are one of the most active sustainability design programs in the world. At COP, they are showcasing their program and an upcoming exhibit – Waterworks. Waterworks is a visually compelling and scientifically innovative collection of high fashion designs, wherein water is used more sustainably in the manufacture, coloring process and even in the consumer use of the clothing. According to Christine Metzger, Assistant Professor of Environmental Science, “The College invited water scientists to teach the student about water science and sustainable water practices. We are committed to integrating science and design teaching. The students then apply this knowledge to their design concepts.”

Showcasing design which uses less water in the production process

The result: 30 highly innovative fashion design projects that aim to inspire and reinvent retail fashion. Read more.

She spent 21 days on the road, traveling through five countries: Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, Botswana and Zambia – before arriving in Durban for the start of the conference on the 27th. For 21 days she slept in the truck, sharing the space with nine other journalists from other small African nations who had the passion to cover climate change, but lacked the resources to travel around to cover the issue extensively, or go to a UN climate summit. The convoy that Audrey joined was organised by the UN’s African Adaptation Programme.

It was a difficult journey for Audrey. In Nairobi, her friends and colleagues had come to know about the roadshow and were waiting to hear her stories. But all day, she was in the truck, travelling through barren land and villages where internet or mobile networks didn’t exist.

Sometimes the convoy did pass through cities and townships, but the trucks would be parked well outside the city center from where it would be impossible to reach a cyber cafe, write and file a story and be back in time.

But resilience had the upper hand. Against all odds, she filed two stories – one each week.

“I wrote my reports by hand during the short breaks when we stopped for a few minutes. Then I called my office in Nairobi and asked them to record my voice. I had also recorded the voices of locals on the trip, so I played those down the phone line for my colleagues to re-record back at the station,” recalls Audrey.

Contrary to how it sounds, it was a far from simple job. Sharing the space within the truck with others meant there was noise all around. So she had to wait till the dead of the night, when everyone would go to bed, to call her office. “I used to go to the toilet. It was dirty and smelly, as they did not have enough water. But it was the only quiet place. So that became my office and I filed the stories from there,” she says.

But there were more challenges to come. Because the truck travelled all day, they could only cook and eat a hot meal at night. For breakfast and lunch, they ate cold packed meals for three weeks. As the truck drove closer to Durban, washing became almost impossible. “In Botswana, where it is very close to the Kalahari desert, there was no water. We had only a few buckets of water for cooking. So, there was no question of taking a bath, though it was very hot,” says Audrey.

Moving from one climate (rainy, wet in Nairobi) to another (dry, hot in Zambia and Botswana) was a challenge and Audrey felt that she was now trying to adapt to a fast changing climate in her own life.

And then there were battles of a more personal kind. A single mother, she has had to leave her five year-old son with another woman for over a month. She misses her son deeply, but feels indebted to her neighbour for being kind enough to look after him. “It’s this woman who made it possible for me to come here. If she had not agreed to take care of my son, I couldn’t have made it at all,” she says with a smile.

Undoubtedly, the trip has made her more resilient but how has it helped to deepen her knowledge of the core issue – climate change?

“It was a great learning opportunity. I saw things that I could have never done otherwise. Along the border of Tanzania-Zambia alone, I counted 10 rivers that were completely dry. It was the most visible sign of climate change. Everyday, as we passed through villages, I also met locals – farmers, cowherds and women – and had a first account of what was happening around them, how they were personally affected by climate change. Most of them did not know what climate change is. But what they told me was that things around them have changed – this tree was greener, that vegetable doesn’t grow anymore and so on.”

Now that she is attending the COP17, she reflects that she has a much better comprehension of climate change reporting thanks to her three-week journey of discovery. She has learnt that journalists have a tough job translating climate change to their audience. The communities she met are all aware of the effects of climate change, but the gaps and changes that they note are small – yet significant to these people’s daily lives. However, she also feels that 192 governments attending the Durban conference should listen to these views from the ground, and take each small change seriously.

Farmers suffering water shortages. Iva Zimova |Panos Pictures

The village of Dullah in the  Pakistani district of Chakwal is arid. According to scientists it is hyper-arid. So in visiting the area, I knew to expect water shortages, and the massive felling of trees and also to hear about changing weather patterns.

But after visiting this area, witnessing the dwindling water levels in the wells with my own eyes and exchanging views with the people who live there, I was frankly taken aback.

In my short film ‘Water Shortages in Chakwal’ I report on the issues of water scarcity and food insecurity arising from groundwater abuse, low rains, and the building of a small dam at the rain water channel. There’s no natural gas so extensive wood cutting for fuel is making matters worse. I have also asked local farmers in Chakwal whether they have any hopes for efforts by the international community or from the government at the COP17/CMP7 in Durban, South Africa.

I learned a lot during this assignment, not least that I believe nature is at the verge of destruction due to human interventions and the unsustainable use of natural resources – in particular water and forests. It’s time for practical action and those paying no attention to this pressing issue for humanity must realize the fact and act accordingly.

Watch ‘Water Shortages in Chakwal’ here.

In a remote area of Chakwal district, Pakistan, farmers are running out of water. In this short film, the farmers describe the changes they have witnessed and politicians outline their hopes for the Green Climate Fund being negotiated at the UN COP 17.

Development in this country has been rapid, with progress in health, education and infrastructure inviting global praise. Although still classified as a least developed country, Bhutan’s per capita income has gone up to more than 2000 USD, second only to Maldives in the region.

Given this success, Bhutan is now looking at a second phase in its development history: a self-dependent phase.

At the mid-term review in November 2010 of the first democratically elected government, the deputy prime minister of Bhutan said, “A country dependent on donor aid is not a sign of success.”

The government has identified hydropower as the primary income generator for its plans to accelerate progress in the country.

The hydropower plans for Bhutan are big. It has been long recognised that there is enormous power potential in the fast flowing rivers of Bhutan, and almost the entire country was powered until recently by less than 20 per cent of the power generated by a 330 megawatt plant built more than two decades ago. The rest was exported to India.

The government’s plans are to bank more heavily on the hydropower sector. By 2020, Bhutan aims to have built 10 hydropower projects in the country, and generate 10,000 megawatts of electricity, all for export to India.

But as these major plans are being executed speedily, not too much attention is being paid to the fact that these plants are greatly threatened by climate change, which is believed to cause glaciers in the high mountains, which are the sources of all the Bhutanese rivers, to melt.

In January this year, claims by the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change that Himalayan glaciers would vanish by 2030 was discredited in a media fiasco dubbed the ‘Glaciergate,’ resulting in increased scepticism of all climate science reflected in the panel’s reports.

Many scientists and glaciologists, including those who discredited the report, however, came forward to explain that they did not challenge the fact that Himalayan Glaciers were melting, and the issue was actually about how fast the glaciers would disappear.

“There is no doubt that glaciers are melting faster than ever before, the debate was on just how fast they are melting,” said Joydeep Gupta, director of Third Pole Project, a website that covers the impact of climate change on the Himalayan Region.

“The effect of glacial melt is non-linear. We will have more water in our rivers in the next couple of decades, meaning more flash floods, and then there will be a progressive reduction of water,” he said.

The International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), which caters to countries in the Hindu Kush region, is cautious with doomsday prophecies for the glacial lakes, but admits that “it is well established that glacial lakes have melted quickly in the recent past (50 years) and such risks must be analysed.”

Madav Karki of ICIMOD said that data generation is a problem for the region while developing hydropower plants.

“Flood, rainfall, precipitation, siltation and melting should all be taken into account when hydropower plants are engineered,” he said, adding that we have 30-50 years of increased water supply in the Himalayas after which the science is vague.

“So you can say that today, we have 30- 50 years to make our Hydropower plants more resilient,” he said.

The agriculture and forests minister, Pema Gyamtsho, who led the Bhutanese delegation at the climate meeting in Cancun, said that his ministry is aware of these threats.

“We should leave at least some (undeveloped) river basins. We don’t want a plant on every river,” he said. “We have to find alternatives for producing the national income, and not put all our eggs in one basket.”