Climate Changer

Temperatures in Tibet have been up to 5 degrees Celsius (9 degrees Fahrenheit) above average so far this month on the plateau region. It will be hotter by 2.2 degrees to 2.6 degrees than at the beginning of this century, Shanghai Morning Post reported these days. “Fast thawing of frozen soil in the plateau might greatly increase the instability of the ground, causing more grave geological problems in the frozen soil areas where major projects such as highways or railways run through,” says Wu Ziwang, a frozen soil specialist at the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

The regional government has built many small houses scattered in pastoral areas, mainly along the Tibet railway, to improve the living conditions for locals,because the retreat of grass lands forced herdsmen to pasture their sheep and horses to farther places. The Qinghai-Tibet Plateau is 4,000 meters above the sea level and is the source of the Yellow River, Yangtze River and the Mekong River.

It is expected that in September a joint Indian-Chinese research team will survey the remote mountains and monitor the sources of the Sutlej and Brahmaputra rivers — an indication of the international repercussions for water supplies.

According to the data collected, the whole of the Tanggula Range of mountains is suffering higher temperatures, lower rainfall and greater vaporization losses, an overall trend towards drier weather. Over the past 40 years, water losses due to global warming and vaporization have reduced water volume in the earth in this region and the grassland is drying out. Low rainfall and dry, hot weather have resulted in drought in some areas such as Xigaze and Shannan, are some of the hot topics around the global warming facts around the climate changes in Tibet.

Meanwhile, most parts of Tibet reported a 50-percent decline in rainfall, which measured less than one millimeter at 17 of the region’s 32 meteorological stations between early December and the end of February.

Travellers At Risk From Global Warming On Tibet Railway was one of the hottest topic on the web since Qing Dahe, head of China’s Meteorological Bureau told that “Maintenance costs (for the railway) could be pushed up because of the unusual climatic conditions. Safety of passengers on the new railway and a new highway in Tibet could be affected by global warming.”