The enthralling beauty of the majestic Himalayan Mountains has inspired awe and religious devotion in people around the world for millennia. They have been the objects of adoration, and centers of religious homage. With most of the eight-thousanders rising here – including the Everest, the crown of all- the Himalaya, the youngest of the mountain systems, dwarfs all other mountain ranges. The lofty Himalayan Mountains continue to challenge the spirit and contribute to the human experience.
The Himalayan range sprawls about 2,700 km across Pakistan, India, Nepal, China, and Bhutan. The Himalaya regulates the climatic regime in the Indian subcontinent and the Tibetan plateau by preventing the frigid, dry arctic wind in the north and forming the barrier for the warm monsoon winds in the south. The Himalayan’s effects in climatic regime are felt far and wide and it is believed to have extended in the formation of central Asian deserts too.
The Himalaya contains the greatest area of glaciers and permafrost outside the polar area, encompassing about 15,000 glaciers. Feeding the ten largest rivers of Asia, the Himalaya is the water towers of Asia. Together, the basins of these ten rivers provide livelihood to about 1.3 billion people. The Himalaya possesses an abundance of ecological niches, from subtropical to arctic climates, supports vast numbers of flora and fauna. The Himalayan region plays an important role in global atmospheric circulation, biodiversity, water resources, and the hydrological cycle, apart from the beauty of its landscape and provision of other ecological services.
A large number of tenacious peoples residing in the Himalayan Mountains and the river valley have over centuries carved out diverse cultures. The Himalaya has profoundly shaped the cultures of South Asia. The lofty peaks and the mighty rivers flowing from the Himalaya have inspired the rise of early civilization and support mosaic of cultural diversity today.
The lofty Himalaya and the region, which has all along been playing an important role in climatic regime regulation, is now itself facing the perils of climate change. Several recent scientific reports have shown that the temperature is rising in upper reaches of Himalayas at an alarming rate of 0.06oC annually, several times more than the global average. This rate of higher than average warming in the Himalaya puts the already fragile mountain ecosystem and its marginalized community at a greater risk. The mountain areas are particularly vulnerable, both because of warming trends are higher and because the impacts are magnified by the extreme changes in altitude over small distances. The impacts of global warming in the Himalaya are not localized; they spread far and wide, up to the sea and coastal region, affecting a vast number of ecosystems and millions of people. Although contribution of the people living here in the global warming is negligible, they are the early victims of its effect, and have to bear the brunt of it.
The current global concern on climate change in general has helped to recognize the threats the most vulnerable regions face. However, the general understanding today often portrays the impression that the mountain regions are the only safe refuge from the impacts of climate change, they will not be submerged. This general impression elides the bitter reality of impact of climate change on the fragile Himalayan mountain ecosystem and its people.
Summiteers and the Himalaya
Ever since the western mountaineers were allowed in Nepal in 1949, for the first time, Nepalese Himalaya has become the center of attraction for a large number of renowned mountaineers. Summiting lofty eight thousanders gathered momentum after the climbing of the Annapurna in 1950 for the first time by the French expedition team.
Summiteers and the Himalaya have maintained a close reciprocal relationship, Himalaya have helped summiteers achieve their aspirations and the summiteers have brought home the Himalayas to the imagination of a vast numbers of people. Today, when the Himalayan Mountains are facing the perils of global warming, it behooves on summiteers, the true lovers of Himalaya, to come forward collectively to help raise the concerns to global community. Moreover, summiteers enjoy that unique and enviable position from where any concerns expressed for the Himalaya carry an essence of genuineness. Collective expression of such concerns on the eve of International Mountain Day coinciding with the 15th conference of United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Copenhagen could be an excellent opportunity to draw the attention of the global community. It provides an opportunity for the summiteers to express their love for the Himalayan Mountains.
Against this backdrop, a program Summiteers Summit to Save the Himalayas will be organized in Copenhagen to mark the International Mountain Day as an accompanying event in the UNFCCC conference. Summiteers of the Himalayan peaks from Himalaya and around the world, celebrities of international repute, and larger global audience with a concern for global climate change will gather and march together to discuss and highlight the challenges faced by the Himalayas in the context of the global warming which could have been avoided and still could be lowered.
Objective
The specific objective of the program is to draw the attention of the global community at large to Himalaya in the context of climate change in order to
• Recognize the significance of the role of the Himalayan mountain region in regulating global climatic regime.
• Recognize and acknowledge the ecosystem services the Himalayan Mountains provide to the larger region.
• Recognize that Himalayan Mountains are as vulnerable, if not more, as any other most vulnerable regions of the world.
• Give the mountain people and diversity a chance to survive the unfolding challenges of climate change.
Program
The Summiteers’ Summit to Save the Himalayas in Copenhagen (SSSH) will bring in to the Copenhagen Conference on Climate Change the summiteers from Nepal and around the world who have earned name and fame summiting the lofty peaks of the Himalaya to demonstrate their concerns for the climate change in the Himalaya. They will join hands and march in the streets of Copenhagen to communicate to the global community the perils of climate change in the Himalaya. The program will be organized on the occasion of the International Mountain Day on December 11, 2009, which also happens to be in the midst of Climate Change Conference. It is expected that such a demonstration in the midst of the Climate Change Conference would help to draw the attention of the global audience concerned with climate change which have gathered in a single forum. This event will be organized as an accompanying event in the 15th session of the UNFCCC.
Efforts will be made to have the presence of celebrities of international repute in the program in addition to the participation of the summiteers. Cultural programs will be presented jointly by a team from the Everest region and a Danish Band. The S3H will make a declaration avowing to the environmental integrity of the Himalayan Mountains and protecting them from the perils of climate change.
The Event shall carry the Declaration from the Kathmandu to Copenhagen Climate Conference held at Aug 31- Sept 1 at Kathmandu. The event will be a part of WWF coordinated “Climate for Life” Campaign. Many iconic personalities and ambassadors of this campaign will remain central to this event.