The Lakes that should not be there - Nepal Lakes

In the Himalayas a series of lakes have formed over the last twenty years. What is most extraordinary is that these lakes should not exist at all as they should be glaciers. They occupy the areas where the glaciers have retreated from, just like Imja Glacier Lake.

As the glaciers melt and are retreating via climate change, Imja Lake is a curse and a blessing. The blessing is that the glacier deposited the screed and rock debris just in front of where the lake formed, thus slowing down the flow of melt water off of the mountain. Therefore protecting the villages and populations from flooding, mudslides and devastation. However it is also a curse as the volume of this lake six thousand feet above sea level is growing. Already a kilometre long and one hundred meters wide it is growing, in length, by a further hundred meters per year.

While on this Lake a sluice gate has been added to control the flow and volume of water, this is only one of hundreds of new lakes that the retreating of the glaciers has created. All of these lakes are at serious risk of collapse, releasing billions of litres upon unsuspecting millions of people.

While attention has quite rightly been focused on the risks of a rise in sea level, we have all missed this looming disaster. If one lake fails it will have a domino effect causing a whole series lakes to fail. This could be a natural disaster that dwarfs the impact of the Boxing Day Tsunami.

I have long been perplexed by the relatively small rise in sea levels as a result of climate change. I am now beginning to understand where all this water is. Because we do have a warmer climate around the globe more of our water has disappeared into the atmosphere, warmer air holds more water. All this is going to lead to a sudden and dramatic environmental and weather event that really will shock everyone into really taking notice of climate change.

It is now to late to prevent the looming catastrophe, millions of people will be killed as a result of this, billions will be made homeless and without food or water. When this dramatic rise in sea levels occurs it will not only effect people in the developing world but every nation will be affected, none of us will escape the impact of this event.

While it will look as though it is a natural disaster, it will be a man made disaster.