Tibet is melting

Home to the world’s largest source of glacial ice outside of the Arctic and Antarctic, Tibet provides fresh water to over 1.5 billion people across Asia. The Brahmaputra, Ganges, Mekong and Yangtze rivers all find their sources in Tibet.

These huge stores of freshwater ice have earned Tibet the title of the Third Pole. However, the Third Pole is under threat.

While experts predict that South Asia will see a temperature rise of 1°C by the end of the century, in Tibet a rise of 4.5°C to 5°C is anticipated. Reports indicate that at least one third of the Third Pole region will melt due to the climate crisis, and a 15% loss of glacial ice has already been recorded since the 1970s.

China’s Climate Colonialism

Since invading and occupying Tibet in 1949, China’s reckless policies of resource extraction, rapid urbanisation, and destructive infrastructure development have accelerated environmental degradation. 

We believe that Tibetans are the experts on Tibet’s environment and ecosystem, yet the Chinese government locks them out of the conversation. Tibetan nomads who have inhabited the region’s grasslands for thousands of years, are forcibly evicted from their lands to make way for destructive mining operations. Those Tibetans living in Tibet who speak out against the Chinese regime are met with state violence and imprisonment.

By denying Tibetans their self-determination, China has attempted to silence their voice. 

But they will not succeed.