https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHdaGnlppag
This podcast focuses on the climate emergency and the critical ‘India China Tibet
Triangle’. Tenzin Choekyi and Lobsang Yangtso were part of an all-female, mostly Tibetan
team who spoke for Tibet at the most important meeting for the future of our planet, the
United Nations Climate Change Conference COP27, held in Egypt from 6-20 November.
Tenzin Choekyi and Lobsang Yangtso also spoke of experiences on the frontline and
dwelled on the surveillance of civil society groups at COP27 in Sharm El Sheik.
Lobsang Yangtso shared her experiences at the recently concluded COP27 in the Podcast
discussion, and said that Tibet is one of the front lines of the global climate crisis and it’s
warming nearly three times faster than the rest of the earth. Like the Arctic, Tibet is
experiencing profound climate change impacts. China’s hydro-damming and mineral
extraction in Tibet, combined with climate change, threaten to destroy Tibet’s unique
ecosystems. She also shared her serious observations of the lack of participation from a
Tibetan from Tibet at COP27 to discuss such issues saying “Tibetan people are not on the
global climate discussion because of colonialism, because of Chinese occupation of Tibet”.
She suggested that the COP meetings in future should have space for stateless people –
people under occupation –who can come to the table to contribute in terms of adaptation
and mitigation measures.
In this discussion Tenzin Choekyi speaks on how zero COVID and climate change are
directly related to food security and nomad displacement – the policies have created
tremendous difficulty and are making nomads lose their food security. She further
emphasised on the Tibetan Environmental Defenders and how the Chinese regime has been
purging them in the name of ‘A Threat to National Security’. Tenzin Choekyi in particular
focused on the late Kunchok Jinpa who was arbitrarily sentenced and passed away in
Chinese prison.
Gabriel Lafitte highlighted China’s role in COP27 and the climate debate. That solidarity
and clarity of purpose of all the developing countries succeeded in getting the entire EU to
change quite radically their policy, and to concede that they really do need to come up with
the finances to enable the world to survive climate change, and that put tremendous
pressure on the United States. That then left a really big question about China – which is
adamant and explicit that it is in no way obligated to pay for loss and damage.
Gabriel then explains why Tibet matters to the rest of the world because Tibet governs the
flow of the monsoon rains and creates the rivers that are sourced from Tibet. The rapid
heating of the Tibetan plateau drives the monsoons.
“In Tibet, China sees an abundant source of hydro power, solar power, wind power, oil and
gas, all to be exported to the heavy industrial users of lowland China. In Tibet the climate is
warming faster than most, as the jet stream in the upper atmosphere diverts around the
plateau, which is such a massive island in the sky that it affects even the jet stream.
Globally, the increasingly common droughts, forest fires, also extreme downpours and
floods are intensified by the increasing meandering of the jet stream. Yet China sees only a
payoff, a dividend it collects as the Tibetan Plateau gets wetter and warmer, its glaciers
melt, the great rivers of Tibet increase streamflow, and China benefits.”
Tibet has a rich diversity of plants and animals, particularly in the warmer, wetter, rugged
landscapes of eastern Tibet, Kham, a big area currently split into no less than four Chinese
provinces. Although Kham has long been recognised as one of the planet’s biodiversity
“hotspots”, very little of it is protected, and some landscapes that are officially protected
such as the UNESCO World Heritage Three Parallel Rivers in Yunnan are mapped by
China to exclude the actual rivers, allowing them to be dammed for hydropower.
Tenzin Choekyi concludes with a passionate message from the Dalai Lama about protecting
all living beings, saying as soon as he wakes in the morning His Holiness recites and
reminds himself of the practice of compassion through the Shantideva prayer, which
includes the lines: ‘As long as space endures, as long as living beings remain, may I too
remain to dispel the misery of the world.’ He puts that into practice. We need the vision
that it is not only human beings [who matter], it is every living being.
