Drolma Li
China Tibet Online
August 20, 2014
The Scientific Assessment of Environmental Change of the Tibetan Plateau, co-published by Yao Tandong, director of the Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research Chinese Academy of Sciences and Meng Deli, vice chairman of the Tibet Autonomous Region, covers climate, water, ecosystem and other three areas.
Getting damper and warmer are the two most prominent features of the climate change. Statistics say the warming speed of the Tibetan Plateau during the latest 50 years doubles that of the whole globe, and the plateau is experiencing the warmest period over the 2,000 years. Meanwhile, the rainfall is increasing on south while decreasing on north of the plateau.
Water cycle shows a trend of strengthening because of the rising temperature, as can be seen in the general retreating of the ice glaciers since 20th century while expanding of lakes after 1990s. After 2000, the expanding trend of lakes speeded up meanwhile a notable difference began to show: water level of lakes on the north of the plateau increases significantly while declines on the south of the plateau represented by the Yarlung Zangbo river basin.
Ecosystem is generally kept fine, as can be seen in the expanding of the temperature zone, the increase of the alpine grassland and decline of the alpine meadow and swamp meadow, the significant increase of forest coverage and reserve thanks to the natural forest protection project, and the slowdown and reverse of wetland degradation, indicating that the construction of ecological security barrier is predictable in both short and long term.
Frozen earth degrades and desertification aggravates and both trends are likely to continue in short and long term.
Human activities negatively influence the ecosystem and its function, as can be seen in the development of agriculture and animal husbandry and mineral exploitation and urban construction. But since the 1960s, extensive environmental and ecological constructions have helped to contain the negative effects and the environment quality began to get better.
Risks of disasters are increasing, indicated by outburst of ice lakes, activation of ice glaciers and mudslides and increased frequency of catastrophic disasters.
How to protect the plateau environment?
Experts came up with specific suggestions to protect the plateau environment.
Establish social development index with green economy as the core content. The index should be the algebraic sum of gross national product (GDP) and the environment development index (EDP), and can be called green economy index (GEP).
Strengthen the coordinating role of the government in environmental protection and overall coordination mechanism. Strengthen planning, for example, combining environmental protection with tourism development in cities and towns, and developing current decentralized nature reserves into nature reserve system.
Improve the observation and evaluation skills. Specific discussions on certain topics based on latest scientific research should be conducted among senior experts, so as to work out high level environmental assessment reports, and provide scientific supports for the government decisions. [It should be the other way around]
Strengthen scientific publicity.. Carry forward the national tradition and build a long-term cultural basis of environmental protection.
