Pakistan has experienced an exceptionally wet monsoon with unusually heavy rains this year, probably due to climate change, but its 7,200 glaciers are also melting, contributing to the catastrophic flooding engulfing the country.
The floods have caused over $1 billion of damage, destroyed over a million homes, and killed over 1,100 people. They’re the worst floods in the country’s history.
Vox says those floods have “political roots,” and describes Pakistan as a country “mired in political turmoil and economic setbacks” (see story here). But they’re also rooted in climate change impacts exported to Pakistan by the developed countries responsible for most greenhouse gas emissions.
Pakistan, a land whose north contains some of the highest mountains on earth, has more glacial ice than anywhere except the polar regions. The problem is that “heat melts ice” and higher temperatures also “turn snow into rain, and when rain falls on ice, it further accelerates melting” (see story here). And, as you know, snowmelt like all water flows downhill and ends up where people live.
It’s no longer possible to argue that global warming isn’t happening, because the evidence is in front of our eyes. It’s happening right now, not sometime in the distant future.
But I believe too little will be done, and too late, because economic priorities will rule. And who in the U.S. or China cares about what happens to people in Pakistan (see story here)? Is that something Americans will give up their F-350s and air conditioning for?
Photos: Meltwater has to go somewhere, and runs downhill, so goes from here (L) to here (R)
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