An urgent call to protect the world's "Third Pole"

On the 17th of October, 2009,

President Mohamed Nasheed of the Maldives
did something unusual.

He held his cabinet meeting underwater.

He literally took his ministers
Scuba diving, as it were,

to warn the world

that his country would drown

unless we control global warming.

Now, I don't know whether he got
his message across the world or not,

but he certainly caught mine.

I saw a political stunt.

You see, I'm a politician,

and I notice these things.

And let's be honest,

the Maldives are distant islands
from where I come from.

My country is Bhutan.

So I didn't lose any sleep
over their impending fate.

Barely two months later,
I saw another political stunt.

This time, the Prime Minister of Nepal,

he held his cabinet meeting
on Mt. Everest.

He took all his ministers all the way up
to the base camp of Everest

to warn the world

that the Himalayan glaciers were melting.

Now, did that worry me?

You bet it did.

I live in the Himalayas.

But did I lose any sleep over his message?

No.

I wasn't ready to let a political stunt
interfere with my beauty sleep.

Now fast forward 10 years.

In February this year,

I saw this report.

This here report basically concludes

that one third of the ice on
the Hindu Kush Himalaya Mountains

could melt by the end of the century.

But that's only if,

if we are able to contain global warming

to 1.5 degrees Centigrade
over pre-industrial levels.

Otherwise, if we can't,

the glaciers would melt much faster.

1.5 degrees Celsius. No way, I thought.

Even the Paris Agreement's
ambitious targets

aim to limit global warming
to two degrees Centigrade.

1.5 degrees Centigrade is what they call
the best case scenario.

Now, this can't be true, I thought.

The Hindu Kush Himalaya region

is the world's third-largest
repository of ice

after the North and South Poles.

That's why we are also called
the Third Pole.

There's a lot of ice in the region.

And yes, the glaciers, they are melting.

We know that.

I have been to those in my country.

I have seen them, and yes,
they are melting.

They are vulnerable.

But they can't be that vulnerable,
I remember thinking.

But what if they are?

What if our glaciers melt
much more quickly than I anticipate?

What if our glaciers are much more
vulnerable than previously thought?

And what if, as a result,

the glacial lakes --

now, these are lakes
that form when glaciers melt --

what if those lakes burst
under the weight of additional water?

And what if those floods
cascade into other glacial lakes,

creating even bigger outbursts?

That would create unprecedented
flash floods in my country.

That would wreck my country.

That would wreak havoc in my country.

That would have the potential
to literally destroy our land,

our livelihood, our way of life.

So that report caught my attention

in ways that political stunts couldn't.

It was put together

by the International Centre for Integrated
Mountain Development, or ICIMOD,

which is based in Nepal.

Scientists and experts have studied
our glaciers for decades,

and their report kept me awake at night
agonizing about the bad news

and what it meant for my country

and my people.

So after several sleepless nights,
I went to Nepal to visit ICIMOD.

I found a team of highly competent
and dedicated scientists there,

and here is what they told me.

Number one:

the Hindu Kush Himalaya glaciers
have been melting for some time now.

Take that glacier, for instance.

It's on Mt. Everest.

As you can see, this once-massive glacier
has already lost much of its ice.