--- title: Consequences as Himalayan Glaciers Melt | TIME description: Climate change is melting the glaciers of the world's highest mountains, affecting millions downstream canonical: https://time.com/video/ClMhElSR/ og:title: Consequences as Himalayan Glaciers Melt og:description: Climate change is melting the glaciers of the world's highest mountains, affecting millions downstream og:url: https://time.com/video/ClMhElSR/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/ClMhElSR/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Consequences as Himalayan Glaciers Melt twitter:description: Climate change is melting the glaciers of the world's highest mountains, affecting millions downstream twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/ClMhElSR/poster.jpg?width=720 --- # Consequences as Himalayan Glaciers Melt > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: Consequences as Himalayan Glaciers Melt [Watch (HLS stream): Consequences as Himalayan Glaciers Melt](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/ClMhElSR.m3u8) (5:29)  _Published 2009-09-01. Climate change is melting the glaciers of the world's highest mountains, affecting millions downstream_ --- Jul 27, 2023 1:12 PM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [A Third of the Himalayan Glaciers Will Melt by the End of the Century, a New Report Finds](/video/BuWtkqmh/) ### A Third of the Himalayan Glaciers Will Melt by the End of the Century, a New Report Finds [Melting Glaciers](/video/dLp8oHOH/) ### Melting Glaciers [Greenland to Sell Bottled Water from Melting Glaciers](/video/MuIXUkDl/) ### Greenland to Sell Bottled Water from Melting Glaciers --- ## Transcript >> For D. P ., a trekking guide, the Himalayan Mountains of Nepal are a refuge from the modern ills of the city. He relishes his time away from the crowds, water shortages, and pollution of the capital, Kathmandu. >> Mountains have a very good fresh air. You can see just the background, it's a so big forest, and water, enough water, how much we want. And then, we can like feel also very extra energy on the mountains. >> But he also wants to bring people to these majestic mountainscapes to see the clear and present dangers of global warming. After an 8- hour drive in a jeep, D. P. leads us on a 3- day trek into the peaks, where he says evidence of climate change is most visible. Soon into the trek, D. P. to a chasm of rubble, one of many landslides triggered by the torrential rains of the monsoon. >> This is a quite big landslide. Every monsoon, we have weather like this prevalent in Nepal. >> Scientists expect this kind of extreme weather will only intensify as the planet warms. The trail rises to 14, 000 feet. As we gaze up in the mountain peaks, we see the Kanchen Glacier. >> When I was first time here, is-- it was 17 years ago. This glacier was very down, about like 10 or 20 meters down. But now, it's marking everyday on getting higher, higher. And you can see all the glacier, it's called Langtang view. When I was first time here, I saw that this glacier until down here. >> Just beneath the glacier, we found the town of Kanchen and a Buddhist monastery. Jhandu Lama remembers how the weather here was different when he was a child. >> I remember when I'm-- I was in a small distance, it's almost like the snow coming here, you know. But now it's very-- fewer. Last year, we have just only like this snow. Very few. >> Every summer, as the weather grows warmer, the shepherds and their yak leave Kanchen village and head for higher and cooler altitudes. Two hours at the mountain, we find them celebrating a ritual to welcome the animals back. They asked for good health as they make their way further up the trail. -[ Foreign language ] >> Kelbu Tamang, a yak herder, tells us that when it's too warm, the grass dries up. So, the production of milk goes down. If there's not enough grass, the animals die. Every year, about 100 yaks die because they don't get enough food, and it's too hot. But Tamang doesn't blame greenhouse gases for the problem. He blames us. -[ Foreign language ] >> The glaciers are receding because more and more trekkers and people are coming here, he says. That's why it isn't raining but getting hotter. What affects a local yak herder at this altitude can have an even greater impact for those downstream, along the glacier- fed rivers in India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. Less snow and smaller glaciers here in the Himalayas will mean less melting water for the millions who live downstream. >> Because glacier melting is much-- is highest in the Himalaya region compared to any other parts of the world, and the glacier melting is actually an indicator of climate change. >> Madhav Karki directs ICIMOD, an international NGO that focuses on the health of the Himalayas. This year, the organization has designated one glacier in the Langtang region as a benchmark to monitor its changes and try to predict the overall impacts of climate change on the Himalayas-- subject about which those very little scientific understanding. >> This rate goes in by 2050, 2 / 3 of the glacier will be gone and by 2100, all glacier will be gone. So, this means a very huge impact on the rivers like Ganges, the Indus, the Brahmaputra. In fact, there's a prediction now that this river may turn into [ unk ]. So, it means that billions of people will be affected. >> In the Kathmandu Valley, people are already getting a taste of how that could feel. Nepal relies on the seasons for much of its water. When the monsoon comes, it's one of the world's most water- rich countries. But in the dry season, the people are often parched. Many residents of Kathmandu spend hours each day waiting for water tankers or lining up to take their water from natural springs. This is because the Nepali government has been hubbled by political instability. And there's little infrastructure to store and distribute water. Soon, the monsoon will come and relieve the pressure on Kathmandu's thirsty residents. D. P. will have to wait out the monsoon season amid the urban clamor of Kathmandu. >> Well, it's actually, if I said honestly to you, I didn't like the Kathmandu. It's so much partisans in there, and you couldn't get to even a fresh air. >> In the fall, the rains will subside, and he will guide another group of trekkers back to the glacial peaks, the source of Kathmandu's water, and a warning sign for the rest of the world. ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Consequences as Himalayan Glaciers Melt","description":"Climate change is melting the glaciers of the world's highest mountains, affecting millions downstream","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/ClMhElSR/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2009-09-01T23:21:03.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/ClMhElSR.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/video/ClMhElSR/","duration":"PT5M29S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/video/ClMhElSR/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}} ```