Unstable Tibetan Plateau risks cascading disasters as glacier losses mount in Nepal, China

Glaciers on the Tibetan Plateau are likely to become more unstable, which may lead to more collapses and collateral disasters, a senior climate official warns as the death toll from last week’s catastrophic landslide and flood on the China-Nepal border continues to rise.“Over the past 60 years, the glacier area on the Tibetan Plateau has shrunk by around 24 per cent, with around 7,000 small glaciers disappearing completely,” Gao Rong, deputy director of China’s National Climate Centre, told a press briefing on Wednesday.“Looking ahead, the structural stability of glaciers across the Tibetan Plateau will decline further. Glacial disasters are likely to become more frequent and could amplify in destruction and reach through cascading effects.”