Nepal holds tribute for disappearing glacier

KATHMANDU: Dozens trekked to Nepal´s Yala glacier for a ceremony on Monday to mark its rapid disappearance due to climate change and put a spotlight on global glacial retreat.

The Yala glacier, located between 5,170 and 5,750 metres above sea level, is in the Langtang Valley in northern Nepal. Since 1974, the glacier has shrunk in area by 66 percent and retreated 784 meters, according to the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development(ICIMOD).

Scientists warn it may eventually disappear by the 2040s if the warming trend continues, and might be among the first in Nepal to join the growing numbers of glaciers declared “dead” worldwide.

“In the 40 years I have studies this glacier, I have seen it halve with my own eyes. We worry that the next generation might not be able to see it,” Sharad Prasad Joshi, a cryosphere specialist at ICIMOD, told AFP.

Prayer flags fluttered on Monday as Buddhist monks performed a ceremony for Yala, with the Himalayas towering behind them. Two granite plaques were unveiled engraved with memorial messages in Nepali, English and Tibetan.

“This monument is to acknowledge that we know what is happening and what needs to be done. Only you know if we did it,” part of the message in one of the plaques read.

The words were by Icelandic writer Andri Snaer Magnason, whose message is also at the site of the world´s first glacier funeral in Iceland. Glacier funerals have also been held in Mexico, the United States and Switzerland.

The ceremony comes as the world marked near-record high global temperatures in April, according to the EU´s climate monitor. In its latest bulletin, the Copernicus Climate Change Service said that April was the second-hottest in its dataset, which draws on billions of measurements from satellites, ships, aircraft and weather stations.