EDF, Asia Society Highlight Threat to Asia's Water Supply on Eve of Obama-Hu Climate Talks

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:
Tony Kreindler, 202-572-3378, akreindler@edf.org
Andrea Welsh, 202-572-3230, awelsh@edf.org
 

(Washington – November 13, 2009) Environmental Defense Fund and the Asia Society tomorrow will partner on a full-page New York Times advertisement featuring dramatic photos of rapidly melting Himalayan glaciers, highlighting threats to Asian water supplies from climate change. 

The ad coincides with President Obama’s trip to Asia, during which he is scheduled to meet with China’s President Hu Jintoa to discuss climate change, among other topics.

“A picture is worth a thousand good intentions. These pictures show why it’s critical that we act - and act quickly - to fight climate change,” said Environmental Defense Fund Executive Director David Yarnold.

“I think the melting of the glaciers, which you can see so graphically in these photographs, is a very concrete visual warning to us. We can see what’s happening. If we do not take heed, we will reap a bitter harvest in the decades to come. They are the alarm system. And the alarm has gone off. The question is, will we hear it,” said Orville Schell, Arthur Ross Director, Center on US-China Relations, Asia Society.

Billions of people get their fresh water from mountain glacier meltwater flows. The problem is the planet’s glaciers are receding at alarming rates. Nowhere is this more acute than in Asia, where up to two billion people rely on meltwater from thinning Himalayan glaciers.

The ad says the Beijing Summit between Presidents Barack Obama and Hu Jintao “presents an incomparable opportunity to begin a major new collaboration to meet the challenge of climate change. The world urgently needs the leadership of the U.S. and China to establish a global framework for accountability and action.”

The ad, viewable online at http://edf.org/documents/10583_NYTad_C.pdf, features the work of mountaineer and photographer David Breashears, who is using comparative photography to capture undeniable evidence of the rapid melt rate of Himalayan glaciers.

Climate change and Asian water supplies by the numbers:

7 – Number of great rivers in Asia fed by meltwater from Himalayan glaciers (Ganga, Indus, Brahmaputra, Salween, Mekong, Yangtze and Huang He).

2 billion – Number of people, mostly in India and China, who rely on meltwater from Himalayan glaciers for their fresh water.

2035 – Date by which the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and India’s Energy and Resources Institute predict that much of the Himalayas could be glacier free.

66% — Amount by which the July-September flows would be reduced in the Ganga River if we lose the Himalayan glaciers.

37% — Amount of India’s irrigated land located in the Ganga region.

1 and 2 – Respective rank of China and India as the world’s producers of wheat and rice, food staples for all of humanity.
 

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