Climate crisis documentary series by Emmy Award winner features Asia’s mountains

With contributions by filmmakers from Pakistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Nepal, the 10-episode second season of the environmental documentary series ‘Voices from the Roof of the World’ (VRW) features the climate crisis in the mountains of Asia.

A joint initiative by agencies of the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN), including Aga Khan University, Aga Khan Agency for Habitat, Aga Khan Foundation and University of Central Asia, the series will be premiered on TV and online on November 6, said a press release on Thursday.

“The people worst affected by climate change today are least responsible for its causes and too often left to bear this burden alone,” said Prince Hussain Aga Khan. “We must give these vulnerable communities a voice and all take responsibility to help them cope with this global crisis. Across all our activities the AKDN works with communities, governments, civil society, and the private sector to invest in locally-led climate action and build resilience.”

“The new season takes us from the Thar desert to high mountain communities whose traditions and very survival is threatened by fast melting glaciers and unpredictable snow and rain,” commented Andrew Tkach, eight Emmy-winning Executive Producer of the series, who has been collaborating with local talent to produce the films.

The series will document the threats faced by such iconic species as snow leopards and griffon vultures. The stories capture the struggle of people and natural habitats that are the least responsible for global warming but already shouldering its catastrophic impacts. Combining local knowledge and innovation, they are finding ways to adapt and fight to save diverse ecosystems and precious water sources.

Last year, record temperatures provoked a series of glacial lake outburst floods in northern Pakistan, sweeping away bridges in valleys below the Shisper Glacier in Hunza. Higher up the mountains, semi-nomadic people called the Wakhi were leading their yaks to summer pastures. Their traditional lifestyle has also been heavily impacted by climate change. Filmmaker Karim Shallwanee has profiled both the scientists and the villagers on this global warming frontline.

Filmmaker Tazeen Bari has documented the annual harvest festival in the Kalash Valleys, which this summer was followed by the devastating floods that inundated much of Pakistan. “Due to climate change and human encroachment, the habitat of snow leopards is quickly shrinking in the Karakoram in Gilgit-Baltistan. With less natural prey to eat, snow leopards have increasingly attacked domesticated livestock,” said filmmaker Abdullah Khan, who followed one angry herder who lost more than a hundred animals to snow leopards.