05 Jul 2007 - By Claudia
Delpero* - “If I compare this land to what
it used to be in the 1960s, it is difficult
for me to recognize it,” recalls Qi Mei
Duo Jie, a 71-year-old nomadic herder from
Yanshiping in China’s central-western Qinghai
Province.
“Glaciers are melting, temperatures are
rising and rainy seasons have become unpredictable.”
Yanshiping is the last town on the Qinghai-Tibet
Highway before entering Tibet. At an altitude
of 4700 metres, its landscape in summer
is marked by shaggy yaks grazing in the
green alpine pastures and the transparent
blue waters of Buqu River – a tributary
of the Yangtze. Winters are white and freezing,
with temperatures reaching as low as -20°C.
It is no surprise that people welcome a
warmer, more comfortable climate in this
remote region. But there is another side
to the changing climate story.
Pressure on the Plateau
Nomadic groups of Tibetans have been moving
around this area for time immemorial, following
the natural rhythm of the seasons and availability
of grassland to raise their livestock.
Qi Mei Duo Jie’s family has been raising
yaks for at least three generations.
“This year has been very dry, and with
less grassland it will take longer to properly
feed and raise livestock,” he says. “This
will mean a lower income for us.”
To compound the situation, warmer climate
conditions are attracting more cattle and
sheep farmers to this harsh but beautiful
high-altitude area, putting additional pressure
on the already fragile alpine landscape.
This pressure is also starting to squeeze
out local wildlife, such as Tibetan antelopes,
that depend on the grasslands too. There
have even been reports of brown bears wandering
close to villages in search of food.
And if bears roaming around town aren’t
enough to lose sleep over, the remote rural
region is experiencing pollution from greenhouse
gases that have been emitted from big cities
as far away as Beijing and Shanghai.
These are some of the consequences of climate
change on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau.
Monitoring the river
“It is only by reducing greenhouse gases
across the country, as well as worldwide,
that vulnerable ecosystems can be preserved
and continue to function as a source of
livelihood for people living here and downstream,”
stresses Dr Li Lin, Head of Conservation
Strategies at WWF China.
“With global warming hitting hard, our
efforts must be extended to find ways for
this region to adapt to climate change.”
WWF, the global conservation organization,
is embarking on a series of studies on how
high-altitude wetlands in the Yangtze source
area — including the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau
and parts of the Kunlun Mountains — can
cope with changing climate conditions. Results
of the studies will help WWF and its Chinese
partners come up with practical solutions
to protect vulnerable ecosystems from the
adverse affects of climate change.
At the village of Tuotuohe — also along
the Qinghai-Tibet Highway and one of the
first places to cross the Yangtze by bridge
— a hydro-geological station monitors the
river’s water levels. This year, despite
an increase in precipitation, water depth
has slightly decreased. One spring that
used to supply drinking water has already
dried up.
“The water level decrease is a direct result
of rising temperatures,” explains Professor
Li Shijie from Nanjing’s Institute of Geography
and Limnology.
“With warmer weather, evaporation is happening
at a rate faster than the melting of the
glaciers that supplies water to the river.
Overall, this means a less supply of water
for local inhabitants.”
Melting glaciers
Some 150 kilometres to the east, in the
permafrost area of Fenguoshan, average precipitation
has been increasing only in certain months
of the year, while the general trend points
toward drier periods.
The evidence is found in the permafrost
itself, the overlying ground surface layer
which freezes in the winter and thaws in
the summer.
“In the last 20 years, larger portions
of frozen ground have melted during summer,”
says Professor Li. “With less water and
more sand on the ground, desertification
is just one step away.”
“Warming temperatures will certainly continue,
but weather events such as rain, snow and
wind are becoming less predictable,” Professor
Li adds.
Experts today agree on one trend: Glaciers,
rivers, wetlands and lakes — all elements
of the fragile high-altitude ecosystem —
are being altered at a speed never seen
before.
Professor Li has personally witnessed the
retreat of Yuzhu glacier, the highest peak
in the Eastern Kunlun Mountains.
“I was in Xidatan, near Yuzhu Peak, for
the first time in the 1980s, and when I
went back, ten years later, the tongue of
the glacier had retreated by 50 metres,”
he says. “Nowadays it is about 100m higher
than it used to be.”
According to scientists, projected climate
change over the next century will further
increase the rate at which glaciers melt.
In particular, glaciers in China, as well
as Nepal and India, are receding at an average
rate of 10–15 metres per year.
“Once destroyed, it will be extremely difficult
to restore the high-altitude ecosystems,”
adds WWF’s Dr Li Lin.
“If industrialized and developing countries
will not focus their efforts on cutting
emissions, some of this land will be lost
forever and local populations will be displaced.
What we need is commitment to continue and
increase the efforts of reducing warming
pollution so that the next generations will
inherit a healthier environment.”
In early June, China released its first
Climate Change National Action Plan. The
plan is the first formal acknowledgement
of China’s goal to reduce CO2 emissions
through a cut of energy consumption by 20
per cent per unit of GDP by 2010.
For WWF, this clarification of the country’s
basic stand on the issue is expected to
play a positive role and stimulate an international
agreement on greenhouse gases emission cuts
in the future.
* Claudia Delpero is Communications Manager
with WWF’s European Policy Office.
END NOTES:
• The Tibetan Plateau Steppe — one of the
largest land-based wilderness areas left
in the world — has the most pristine mountain
grassland in Eurasia. Known as the “Roof
of the World”, this ecoregion has an average
elevation of 4500 metres (15,000 feet).
From here, several major rivers (including
the Yangtze, Mekong and Indus) begin their
long journeys to the sea. Due to its size
and its position near the tropics, the Tibetan
Plateau is one of the most ecologically
diverse alpine communities on Earth.
• The Yangtze River rises in the mountains
of Qinghai Province on the Tibetan plateau
and flows 6,300km to the East China Sea,
opening at Shanghai. The Yangtze river basin
accounts for 40% of China’s freshwater resources,
more than 70% of the country’s rice production,
50% of its grain production, more than 70%
of fishery production, and 40% of the China’s
GDP.
