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The world has a third pole – and it's melting quickly
Khawa Karpo lies at the world's "third pole". This is how glaciologists refer to the Tibetan plateau, home to the vast Hindu Kush-Himalaya ice sheet, because it contains the largest amount of snow and ice after the Arctic and Antarctic – the Chinese glaciers alone account for an estimated 14.5% of the global total. However, a quarter of its ice has been lost since 1970. This month, in a long-awaited special report on the cryosphere by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), scientists will warn that up to two-thirds of the region's remaining glaciers are on track to disappear by the end of the century. It is expected a third of the ice will be lost in that time even if the internationally agreed target of limiting global warming by 1.5C above pre-industrial levels is adhered to.
Whether we are Buddhists or not, our lives affect, and are affected by, these tropical glaciers that span eight countries. This frozen "water tower of Asia" is the source of 10 of the world's largest rivers, including the Ganges, Brahmaputra, Yellow, Mekong and Indus, whose flows support at least 1.6 billion people directly – in drinking water, agriculture, hydropower and livelihoods – and many more indirectly, in buying a T-shirt made from cotton grown in China, for example, or rice from India.
Joseph Shea, a glaciologist at the University of Northern British Columbia, calls the loss "depressing and fear-inducing. It changes the nature of the mountains in a very visible and profound way."
Yet the fast-changing conditions at the third pole have not received the same attention as those at the north and south poles. The IPCC's fourth assessment report in 2007 contained the erroneous prediction that all Himalayan glaciers would be gone by 2035. This statement turned out to have been based on anecdote rather than scientific evidence and, perhaps out of embarrassment, the third pole has been given less attention in subsequent IPCC reports.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by FatPhil on Thursday September 19 2019, @12:00PM (7 children)
There's no other pole at the other end of the axis, because there's no axis, because there's no bloody rotation.
What I'm trying to say is that, no matter what glaciologists call it, there's no goddamn pole in Asia.
Dear glaciologists, please kill yourselves. Everyone else - burn as much fossil fuel as possible: the quicker we can melt all the ice on the planet, the quicker we can put these fuckers out of a job.
A peanut is a nut. Suck it. (And I demand both an insightful and an informative for every flamebait.)
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 19 2019, @01:47PM
I'm sure there are a bunch of Poles in Asia. Not as many as there are in Poland, but that's to be expected, no?
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 19 2019, @02:18PM
Glaciology has been taken over by the climate change religion run by the deep state. The glaciologists are just the deep state's pets.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by DeathMonkey on Thursday September 19 2019, @05:39PM (3 children)
It's called a term of art. It helps scientists talk to each other and happens in every discipline.
I guess computer scientists should kill themselves too for building architectures that aren't buildings, coding in dirty cleanrooms, and don't even get me started on bandwidth!
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Thursday September 19 2019, @06:51PM (2 children)
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 19 2019, @07:27PM (1 child)
What do you think of when you picture yourself standing at the poles? The North pole is a vast expanse of glacial ice. South Pole is a vast expanse of glacial ice. This third "pole?" Why I daresay it is a vast expanse of glacial ice.
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Friday September 20 2019, @08:09AM
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 20 2019, @05:14AM
Well there's monopoles, dipoles, quadrupoles, octopoles, etc. You get the picture. Which pole are you sad about?