On 06/22/2009 Foreign Policy Magazine published an expose (on the then recently published Failed States Index) in which they highlighted a very critical issue on Climate Change in a region of the world that is garnering much attention lately:
"Hopelessly overcrowded, crippled by poverty, teeming with Islamist militancy, careless with its nukes—it sometimes seems as if Pakistan can’t get any more terrifying. But forget about the Taliban: The country's troubles today pale compared with what it might face 25 years from now. When it comes to the stability of one of the world's most volatile regions, it's the fate of the Himalayan glaciers that should be keeping us awake at night."
It turns out that the mountainous area of Kashmir around Pakistan's contested border with India are the origins of rivers that provide ninety percent of Pakistan's agricultural irrigation. In 1960, India and Pakistan formed the Indus Waters Treaty which divided the six tributaries that form the Indus River. India got the three eastern branches (which flow through Punjab) and Pakistan got the other three (which flow through Jammu and Kashmir). It is astonishing that this treaty lasted over 50 years in this war torn region of the world.
At the current global warming rate, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) estimates that the Himalayan glaciers could be mostly gone by 2035. It truly is a grim situation, and I am generally not an alarmist. Much emphasis has been placed on in impact of biological species, particularly on the species that can see an entire collapse of their populations. But we also need to keep in mind that there is a real human and societal impact of Global Climate Change.
This article posted on Blog Action Day.
