Save the Himalayas Campaign

Save the Himalayas!

Petition

Stop Global Warming! Stop Melting Himalayas!


We urge citizens of the world to join us to Save the Himalayas from the ravages of global warming. High level negotiations in December 2009 in Copenhagen failed to address the impact of climate change in the Himalayas. We now urge that UNFCCC will bring Melting Himalayas in the global climate change debate.

In the last few decades, climate change has become a defining challenge to the world community. The impact of climate change is global, far reaching, and largely irreversible. Interest in climate change has gone beyond the academia and reached policy makers and general community worldwide.

At the international level, polar region and Amazonian rain forests have caught global attention in climate change debate. Although significant at the global scale, the magnitude and impact of climate change on the Himalayas have caught little international attention.

We emphasize that the Himalayas are the water towers of Asia feeding its largest river systems and nourishing hundreds of millions of people downstream. They play a vital role in global atmospheric circulation and are a sanctuary for unique biodiversity. The lofty peaks and mighty rivers emanating from the Himalayas have inspired civilizations, and now support a mosaic of cultural diversity. The Himalayas, in essence, are a global treasure. And as the proverb says, we cannot describe the marvels of the Himalayas.

We must admit that the impact of climate change is seriously threatening this treasure. Temperatures are rising rapidly at higher altitudes several times higher than the global average. Glaciers are melting changing landscapes and creating dangerous glacial lakes held back only by natural dams of rubble and ice. The ensuing changes threaten unique ecosystems and the lives of millions of people living in the mountains and downstream who eke out their livelihoods from diverse mountain resources.

The menace of climate change on the Himalayas will manifest far and wide extending to the coasts in the form of drought, flood, and sea level rise. As the seas rise, there is no refuge from climate change even at the highest altitudes.

Please join hands with Nepal to express your solidarity to safeguard the Himalayas.

COME AND JOIN "SAVE THE HIMALAYAS RALLY" to be held in New York on September 21, 2010 from Noon-4 PM @ at Dag Hammarskjold Plaza, 47th Street and 1st Avenue, Manhattan, New York.