Spring is coming earlier to the Tibetan plateau and it could affect the lives of millions
Study highlights how the snows start to melt a week earlier than in 1960 in the region where China’s three major rivers have their sources
The time snow starts to thaw and grass starts to turn green in the heart of Tibetan plateau is over a week earlier now than in the 1960s, according to a new study by Chinese scientists.
The researchers warned that the early arrival of springtime on the Tibetan plateau could have an impact across almost all of China.
China’s three main rivers – the Yellow, Yangtze and Lancang – originate in a region 4,000 metres above sea level covered by snow and glaciers.
“If their annual melting arrives with increasing haste, it can change the flooding and drought patterns of the major rivers and affect the livelihoods of many people,” said Yan Zhongwei, an author of the study with the Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing.
The Yellow River’s fertile valleys were the cradle of Chinese civilisation and the river supplies water to a third of the nation’s population.
However, it has also been named “China’s sorrow” because of the devastation flooding can cause along its banks and in recent decades the government has built numerous dams in an effort to tame the waters.
