As temperatures rise, permafrost thaws, releasing trapped methane into the atmosphere, further exacerbating global warming.
China is the world’s biggest emitter of greenhouse gases. In 2011, a fifth of the world’s total fossil fuel carbon dioxide emissions came from China’s coal, which was also responsible for more than 80 per cent of the country’s eight gigatons of fossil fuel emissions that year.
Extreme temperature rises in Tibet are creating a serious Climate Crisis loop. As permafrost melts large amounts of methane are released – a greenhouse gas 30 times more potent than CO2 – further warming the planet.
Greenhouse gases, natural and human induced, are the major factor behind climate change. In the past century, human activities have substantially increased the amount of those gases in the atmosphere, resulting in global warming. Because bigger states are producing the bulk of those emissions, it is important that they take the lead in reducing emissions.
The Tibetan Plateau is warming THREE TIMES as fast as anywhere else on earth. As Tibet warms the entire Himalayan region stands to lose its glacier ‘insurance’ in the long-term.
Nearly 20 per cent of the world’s population depends on the freshwater rivers fed by the Himalayan glaciers. But, as the Tibetan Plateau warms, the glaciers are melting, and melting faster than they can accumulate ice. Climate change induced water scarcity will negatively impact the region’s agricultural productivity, energy production and the health of its population.
