You Are Invited: October 19, 2010
Asia’s Growing Crisis of Floods and Droughts
The Asia Society, China Environment Forum, and Environmental Change and Security Program
Tuesday, October 19, 2010, 12:00 p.m. - 2:00 p.m.
Woodrow Wilson Center, Washington DC
6th Floor Auditorium
RSVP Agenda Directions Webcast
David Breashears, Executive Director, GlacierWorks
Syed Iqbal Hasnain, Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Stimson Center
Orville Schell, Arthur Ross Director, Center on U.S.-China Relations, Asia Society
The Greater Himalayas, whose glaciers supply crucial seasonal water flows to some 40 percent of the world's population, are a climate change hot spot. The Tibetan Plateau has experienced a 1 degree Celsius temperature rise in the past decade alone and the 40,000+ glaciers in these mountains are in rapid retreat, posing grave environmental and human health threats. The prospect of catastrophic changes in normal season flows (sometimes too much, and at others times too little) from this Tibetan “water tower” is real. China's foremost glacier scientist, Yao Tandong, predicts that many of China's glaciers will disappear by 2050. This rapid melting due to climate change is altering the lifestyle and livelihood of the local population by threatening to bring more flood and drought to downstream users.
Mountaineer, photographer, and filmmaker David Breashears has climbed the Himalayan Mountains five times in the last three years. His photographs have shown the catastrophic loss of ice during the intervening years, and provide a visual warning of the impacts to downstream communities throughout Asia that rely on waters from these mountains.
Syed Iqbal Hasnaina is a Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Stimson Center. He currently serves as chairman of the Glacier and Climate Change Commission established by the State Government of Sikkim (India). As a top Indian glaciologist, he has long advocated the impact of long-lived carbon dioxide and short-lived climate on the Himalayan-Tibetan glaciers.
Orville Schell is director of the Center on U.S.- China Relations at the Asia Society. He is the author of 14 books, nine of them about China. His most recent books are, Virtual Tibet, The China Reader: The Reform Years, Mandate of Heaven: the Legacy of Tiananmen Square and the Next Generation of China’s Leaders.
If you are interested, but unable to attend the event, please tune into the live or archived webcast at www.wilsoncenter.org/ondemand. The live webcast will begin approximately 10 minutes after the posted meeting time. You will need Windows Media Player to watch the webcast. To download the free player, please visit: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/download.
Location: Woodrow Wilson Center at the Ronald Reagan Building, 1300 Pennsylvania Ave., NW, Washington DC, USA ("Federal Triangle" stop on Blue/Orange Line), 6th floor auditorium. A map to the Center is available at www.wilsoncenter.org/directions. Note: Due to heightened security, entrance to the building will be restricted and photo identification is required. Please allow additional time to pass through security.
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