Geopolitics and Ecology of Himalayan Water
About Us
The Geopolitics and Ecology of Himalayan Water is a new project of the eARThumanities at New York University Abu Dhabi (NYUAD) in collaboration with the Rachel Carson Center, LMU Munich. As the climate crisis worsens, a vast swath of Asian countries for which the Himalayan water supply constitutes the most important lifeline, are faced with mounting insecurity. The scramble for uninterrupted access to ample fresh-water supplies is increasingly triggering a geopolitical dispute among the continent’s strongest powers, eroding interstate cooperation. This initiative also aspires to become a teaching lab for making interdisciplinary connections and drawing parallels across a wide range of human-environment problems. Areas of research will cover history, science, engineering, data, geopolitics, anthropology, food security, film, policy design, writing, etc. and advance the agenda of interdisciplinary research and collaboration across the divisions at NYU Abu Dhabi (NYUAD), NYU’s Global Network University (GNU), the Rachel Carson Center and other important international institutions.
Central Nepal flood, the day after
Satellite images show the glacial collapse on the North Face of Langtang was in Nepal itself. The following article contextualizes the current disaster in the broader disaster landscape of the region and dives deeper into the current state and causes of the central Nepal floods.
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“Catastrophe of Unimaginable Proportions”
The scale of the Nepal-Tibet disaster continues to grow. Our own Kunda Dixit, publisher of Nepali Times and a member of the GEHW team, spoke with Democracy Now! on August 31, telling Amy Goodman the confirmed death toll has passed 900, with nearly 5,000 people still missing across Nepal and Tibet. Search teams are working to reach more than 900 hydropower workers believed trapped in tunnels sealed by debris, and Dixit called it "a catastrophe of unimaginable proportions." He described a shift in how Himalayan glaciologists are thinking about these events: rather than simple ice melt, permafrost that once held mountain bedrock together is thawing, and slopes themselves are beginning to fail. He also noted that Nepal sits between India and China, the two countries he called the biggest emitters together, while bearing almost none of the historical responsibility for the emissions driving these changes. Rain continues in the area, and he warned the risk of further flooding has not passed.
Who Will Pay For Nepal's Disasters? Climate Finance Explained
Listen to our fellow Rastraraj Bhandari demystify climate finance and its connection to the cost of climate disasters.
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