Asia’s High Glaciers Protect Communities from Drought.
In some areas of the Himalayan region, for example, temperatures have risen faster than the global average.
This glacial loss has consequences for Asia as the glaciers provide an important ecosystem service to 800 million people by acting as a regional buffer against drought and providing summer meltwater to rivers and aquifers.
Droughts in the Himalayan region have already resulted in more than 6 million deaths over the past century.
Glacier loss would only add to drought-related water stress in the region, impacting a surrounding 136 million people.
It could result in social instability, conflict, and migrations of populations.” According to Pritchard’s research, the high mountains of Asia supply 23 cubic kilometers of water downstream every summer.
If the glaciers were to vanish, the amount of water during the summer would decrease by 38 percent in the upper Indus basin on average and up to 58 percent in drought conditions.
About 90 percent of Pakistan’s agriculture depends on the river and much of the world’s cotton comes from the Indus River Valley.
Some areas, such as the Aral Sea, rely exclusively on the glacier water during the drought months.
Twila Moon, a postdoctoral research associate at the U.S. National Snow and Ice Data Centre in Boulder, Colorado, recently discussed the consequences of global glacier volume loss on populations worldwide in Science magazine.