How Climate Change is impacting global water resources

So much of our project work is about water. We are funding the construction of a new water supply system in Deurali, enabling farmers to grow crops that don't require intensive watering and providing the basic materials to build water harvesting ponds. In the Himalaya's this is the biggest impact Climate Change is having, it is effecting the amount of rain and snow fall and changing the amount of water available from glacier and snow melt. 

NASA scientists have taken a global look of the impacts climate change is having on water and have produced an annotated map to show the significant changes that are happening around the world. In Nepal, it is glacier melt, in other locations groundwater depletion is the most pressing concern, or surface water drying. 

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The full report by Rodell et al, can be read at Nature.com. A useful short summary by Eric Holthaus, is available on Grist.   

Quick Question: can we still email you?

You will probably have heard about GDPR and the changes to the data protection laws. They are good changes and we welcome them. The key impact it is having on The Glacier Trust is that we need to ask you to consent to receiving emails about our work and how you can help.

We have emailed everyone asking them to fill out a very short form to confirm they are happy to continue receiving email from us. We are very encouraged by how many people have done this, more than 30% of you, which is probably a good deal more than the sector average. 

If you've not yet given us your consent and you would still like to hear from us, please fill out this form as soon as possibleAnyone who is not signed up by the end of next week will be permanently deleted from our email list. 

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We send approximately six emails per year. We aim to keep you up to date with all our project work and how you can support us. We also share news and opinion from the world of climate change adaptation. 

Your support is so important to us and to all the families we work with in Nepal. It will only take 30 seconds to confirm you still want to hear from us.

 

Please let people in Nepal know that their stories matter. 

Thank you.

Around the Grounds

Sponsored walk raises over £650 for The Glacier Trust's work in Nepal

Yesterday on the last day of the Premier League season, two TGT supporters took on and completed an incredible 27.4 mile sponsored walk across London. The idea, dreamed up by Glyn Phillips (younger brother of TGT Co-Director, Morgan) was to visit as many Premier League grounds as possible in one day, on foot! 

Glyn is a Spurs fan, so it was quickly decided that the walk should start at Wembley stadium (Spurs' temporary home) and end at White Hart Lane, (Spurs' true home!) Glyn was joined by his good friend Adam Lewitt (a Man Utd fan) for the walk which also took in Stamford Bridge, the Emirates Stadium and the London Stadium.  

They completed the walk in just under 11 hours. and have so far raised an incredible £655 for our Climate Change Adaptation work in Nepal. There is still time to sponsor them. Please do, 100% of the money raised will go to our project work. 

Their sense of humour stayed intact right to the last, we caught up with Adam just after the finish line:

I'm exhausted. It was a walk of two halves, we covered a lot ground and really had to dig deep. Late on, over there on Tottenham Marshes, I didn't think we were going to make it, Glyn seemed to want to cover every blade of grass, it was incredible to see him play on through the pain barrier like that. He deserves a lot of credit. 

Glyn summed up the performance:

I'm just delighted we managed to hold our nerve and get over the line. Adam was an absolute rock out there, he just kept driving us on, I don't know how he does it. What can I say? It is so great to finish here in front of all our supporters. Thanks to everyone who has been behind us on this incredible journey.  
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If you would like to take on a sponsored challenge on behalf of The Glacier Trust, please visit our bespoke challenges page and get in touch. 

Climate Migration

The World Bank have published a 256 page report on the projected impacts climate change will have on migration around the world.

Migration patterns in south Asia have been dominated by movements from rural to urban areas as families search for economic security. The World Bank are predicting a partial reversal of this over the coming decades.

As climate change takes hold, low lying and coastal areas will become too hot and in many cases too flooded to be livable. The projected impacts of this on migration vary. The report looks at three different scenarios, all three predict significant flows of people within and between countries in South Asia. 

Source: World Bank (2018) Groundswell - Preparing for Internal Climate Migration, Available online via: http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2018/03/19/climate-change-could-force-over-140-million-to-migrate-within-countries-by-20…

Source: World Bank (2018) Groundswell - Preparing for Internal Climate Migration, Available online via: http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2018/03/19/climate-change-could-force-over-140-million-to-migrate-within-countries-by-2050-world-bank-report 


Climate change is not likely to be the main factor driving migration, economics will continue to play a major role. But, climate will become more important and more influential over time. How important depends on how quickly and how high temperatures rise. 

The Glacier Trust works with communities in remote mountainous regions of Nepal, we enable climate change adaptation through agriculture, water supply and education programmes. The Groundswell report predicts that upland regions will see in-migration as people look to inhabit slightly cooler climes. 

The southern Indian highlands, especially between Bangalore and Chennai will be climate in-migration hotspots. Parts of Nepal, as well as northwestern India, also see climate in-migration. (World Bank, 2018, p. 121). 

We have to remember of course that the highland regions are already facing a lot of challenges due to climate change and these are likely to intensify. Indeed, the trend at the moment in the Himalayas is still out-migration as farming is getting harder and more unpredictable. People go to cities in search of work and a stable income. Our projects are changing this, farmers are staying and in some cases returning as they recognise the opportunities that now exist thanks to the project work we are enabling.

If the mountain regions become a refuge for climate migrants, we need to do all we can to ensure they are livable with thriving agricultural economies. We are already demonstrating the possibilities and hope to continue to innovate to show the way. 


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Courage not hope

Climate scientists. People don’t listen to them much, but if you do this is what you’ll hear: the chances of avoiding dangerous climate change are now almost zero. 3°C or more of global warming looks inevitable, it is 95% certain.

We are in the midst of collective acceptance of this reality, the hope we’ve held for so long is ebbing away, the game is up, we failed to stop this thing. Sadness, regret, grief and anger are sweeping through the environment movement. This is an emotional moment; and a juncture.

We've covered this before, but two incredible short essays have been written this month; we'd love you to read them: 

  1. We Need Courage, Not Hope, to Face Climate Change
    by Kate Marvel.
  2. I Felt Despair About Climate Change—Until a Brush With Death Changed My Mind
    by Alison Spodek Keimowitz.

All over the world, as temperatures rise, people will suffer. How much they suffer is down to us, we can enable them to adapt so that the very worst impacts are avoided. Every donation you make fills a family in Nepal with hope, hope that they will be able to adapt.  

Enable climate change adaptation in Nepal by donating to The Glacier Trust today.