A fresh environmental assessment of the Tibetan Plateau has found that the region is getting hotter, wetter and more polluted, threatening its fragile eco-systems and those who rely on them.
The report, released in Lhasa by the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and the government of Tibet, finds that precipitation has risen by 12 per cent since 1960 and temperatures have soared by 0.4 degrees Celsius per decade — twice the global average.
“The Tibetan plateau is getting warmer and wetter. This means that vegetation is expanding to higher elevations and farther north, and growing seasons are getting longer,” said Yao Tandong, director of the CAS Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research in Beijing.
ADVERTISEMENT
But some areas, such as the headwater region of Asia’s biggest rivers, have become warmer and drier and are being severely affected by desertification and grassland and wetland degradation, he added. In addition, glaciers are shrinking rapidly and one-tenth of the permafrost has thawed in the past decade alone.
The plateau feeds Asia’s biggest rivers so these problems are likely to affect billions of people, the report maintained.