EUROPE IMAGES INTERNATIONAL - M5

Synopsis

The scientific world now knows that the massive chain of the Himalaya Mountains is vulnerable. If proof were needed, it can be found in the dizzying speed with which the glaciers are melting, some as fast as almost 200 feet per year, directly threatening the mountain dwellers. Glacial lakes are forming that are deep, broad and still growing. The slightest earthquake or even the fall of a serac may be enough to turn this water into "mountain tsunamis".

The Himalayas are also a supply of drinking water for over one billion people. Nine major rivers, including the Ganges and the Brahmaputra, descend from them. Hundreds of miles downstream, these two great tributaries empty into the Bay of Bengal after passing through Bangladesh.
This country is already regularly swept by natural disasters and can do without the melting ice which only accentuates already fearsome flooding caused by the monsoons. With flooding in the north and center, the south is in danger of being drowned by rising sea levels. Within 50 years a third of the country may disappear.

This would cause 390 million climate refugees to come knocking on India's doors since India is their most immediate neighbour. The impact of climate change will soon take on geopolitical proportions.

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