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Climate Change, Perceptions, and Social Heterogeneity in Pharak, Mount Everest Region of Nepal
Abstract
Based on 15 months of research conducted between 2010 and 2012, this paper examines how climate change is unfolding for Sherpas in Pharak, the southern part of Nepal's Everest region. Sherpas are noticing environmental changes, undergoing socioeconomic transformation, being introduced to climate change, and becoming exposed to multiple forms of environmental knowledge from various sources. Thus, climate change in this research emerges as an issue not contained within a single geographic territory or an academic discipline but as the product of multiple knowledge systems in addition to observable effects on the natural environment. This research reveals the narrowly defined institutional climate change narratives that focus on melting of glaciers and glacial lake outburst floods. I argue that a sustained emphasis on such institutional narratives will obscure the wider range of both short-and long-term climate change effects and thereby limit our understanding of their impacts on the residents of this region. I further argue that in order to understand Sherpa perceptions of climate change, it is necessary to understand the exposure and access of individual Sherpas to various sources of knowledge and resources. This can be achieved by exploring social heterogeneity and understanding how social networks function in this small-scale cultural group.
... The techno-managerial front is also omnipresent in the solutions to address the impacts of climate change, which assume that technologies can operate independently of prevailing social dynamics (Carey, French, and O'Brien 2012;Dunstan 2019). By and large, these top-down models and techno-scientific interventions and approaches to climate change alienate communities by showing little interest for the concerns of impacted populations and local knowledge (Haverkamp 2021;Sherpa 2014). The implications are important because besides marginalizing different epistemologies and ontologies of the climate, such frameworks about the climate have the power to govern places and their future (Paprocki 2021). ...
... Climate change does not happen in a vacuum and at the local level, the political landscape and prevailing attitudes by bureaucrats and experts towards Indigenous communities play a determining role on how it is experienced by frontline communities in mountainous areas (Carey 2010;Rasmussen 2015;Sherpa 2014). In Zanskar, the experience of climate change intersects with prevailing feelings of political and economic marginalization. ...
... Climate change indicates a worsening of the impacts of drought, highlighting the necessity to reassess the recognition of citizens affected by climate-related issues. Scholars are increasingly critical of the marginalization of interpretative disciplines and the abstraction of local populations from the production of environment-related knowledge in the Himalayas Sherpa 2014). Here, we agree with Orlove et al. (2023) that considering that 'institutions of knowledge-making and institutions of governance do not change independently of each other,' addressing asymmetries of power in the production of knowledge and making room for the 'fair inclusion and participation of different knowledge systems' is a question of climate justice. ...
... High mountain regions and people living in those areas are prone to adverse impacts of the changing climate compared to the lowlands of Nepal because the rate of rise in temperature is comparatively more in the higher altitudinal zones (Xu et al. 2009;Gentle and Maraseni 2012;Sherpa 2014). In high mountains, increase in the temperature has been higher than the average global warming compared to past couple of decades (IPCC 2007a). ...
... In addition, other studies have also provided evidences of natural hazards like forest fire, landslide, and flood occurred due to climate change Manandhar et al. 2011;Gentle and Maraseni 2012;Gentle et al. 2018). In contrary, scholars argue that the impacts of climate change should not be limited within the periphery of changes seen in temperature and precipitation and the impacts that are observed due to these changes, but it should also be considered from the social perspective which gives holistic understanding of impacts of climate change in human livelihood and ecological systems (Sherpa 2014;Poudel 2020a;and Poudel 2020b) ...
... Furthermore, Acharya (2021) argued for the need of promotion of renewable energy technologies such as hydropower, solar power, wind energy, and improved cooking systems in the mountainous country like Nepal to adapt with the changing climate. Sherpa (2014) and Poudel (2020a) have reported that defining and adopting adaptation based on the changes seen in temperature and precipitation are not enough as they do not incorporate the social perspective of adaptation, which require incorporation of the local understanding and voices in policy planning and implementation. ...
Nepal is ranked as one of the highly climate vulnerable nations in the present global climate scenario. Multiple studies have been done across the regions, yet there lacks a detailed study on the impacts of climate change and adaptation practices in mountainous areas such as Mustang region of Nepal. In this context, we aim to examine the impacts of climate change experienced locally and adaptation practices adopted in Muktinath valley of Mustang District, Nepal. A mixed-method approach was employed in gathering qualitative and quantitative data. The household surveys (N=60) were done using a simple random sampling followed by Key Informant Interviews (N=10) and Focus Group Discussions (N=2). The analysis of overall trend of mean annual maximum, minimum and average temperatures from 1985 to 2016 depicted an increment by 0.06℃/yr, 0.0369℃/yr and 0.0217℃/yr respectively. Agriculture, water resources, Non-Timber Forest Products and human health were extremely impacted due to the changing climate. Moreover, several natural hazards like landslide, avalanche, spread of invasive species, and increase in number of pests and flies were experienced. Construction of artificial pond, pest and weed control, change in plantation and harvesting time, and change in cropping pattern were the major adaptation practices adopted by the local people. Similarly, lack of technical and financial resources were the major constraints for adaptation practice. We recommend that the local and provincial governments should focus on local level policies to support the mountain livelihood and landscape.
... Haegeli et al. 2010;Halperin 2016;Hameso 2018;Liao et al. 2014;Merid et al. 2017;Nathan 2008;Pandey 2019;Qasim et al. 2018;Roder et al. 2016;Sherpa 2014;Sujakhu et al. 2016;Valdivia et al. 2013;Wang and Cao 2015). Elevation (altitude) is positively correlated with climate risk perception and may also shape risk perception as climate change impacts are stronger and changes are often first evidently visible in high mountain areas. ...
... Elevation (altitude) is positively correlated with climate risk perception and may also shape risk perception as climate change impacts are stronger and changes are often first evidently visible in high mountain areas. Slow-onset hazardous processes and changes reported include: the observation of changing temperatures(Hameso 2018;Merid et al. 2017;Sherpa 2014;Wang and Cao 2015) and precipitation(Liao et al. 2014;Sujakhu et al. 2016;Wang and Cao 2015), negative impact/variations on arable agriculture(Hameso 2018;Pandey 2019;Sujakhu et al. 2016;Wang and Cao 2015), livestock agriculture(Liao et al. 2014;Merid et al. 2017) and, vegetation and wild fauna(Sherpa 2014). In addition, a higher frequency of mainly water related hazards were reported, namely: floods(Merid et al. 2017;Pandey 2019;Sherpa 2014) or contrarily linked to water scarcity(Merid et al. 2017;Pandey 2019;Sherpa 2014;Sujakhu et al. 2016), but also storm(Merid et al. 2017), snow melt (Pröbstl-Haider et al. 2016Wang and Cao 2015), glacial melt(Wang and Cao 2015), hail(Merid et al. 2017;Valdivia et al. 2013), changing winds(Hameso 2018) and glacial retreat(Hameso 2018;Sujakhu et al. 2016). ...
... Elevation (altitude) is positively correlated with climate risk perception and may also shape risk perception as climate change impacts are stronger and changes are often first evidently visible in high mountain areas. Slow-onset hazardous processes and changes reported include: the observation of changing temperatures(Hameso 2018;Merid et al. 2017;Sherpa 2014;Wang and Cao 2015) and precipitation(Liao et al. 2014;Sujakhu et al. 2016;Wang and Cao 2015), negative impact/variations on arable agriculture(Hameso 2018;Pandey 2019;Sujakhu et al. 2016;Wang and Cao 2015), livestock agriculture(Liao et al. 2014;Merid et al. 2017) and, vegetation and wild fauna(Sherpa 2014). In addition, a higher frequency of mainly water related hazards were reported, namely: floods(Merid et al. 2017;Pandey 2019;Sherpa 2014) or contrarily linked to water scarcity(Merid et al. 2017;Pandey 2019;Sherpa 2014;Sujakhu et al. 2016), but also storm(Merid et al. 2017), snow melt (Pröbstl-Haider et al. 2016Wang and Cao 2015), glacial melt(Wang and Cao 2015), hail(Merid et al. 2017;Valdivia et al. 2013), changing winds(Hameso 2018) and glacial retreat(Hameso 2018;Sujakhu et al. 2016). ...
Mountains are highly sensitive to climate change. Their elevated areas provide essential ecosystem services both for the surrounding mountainous regions and particularly for adjacent lowlands. Impacts of a warmer climate affect these services and have negative consequences on the supply of water, on biodiversity and on protection from natural hazards. Mountain social-ecological systems are affected by these changes, which also influence communities' risk perception and responses to changing climate conditions. Therefore, to understand individual and societal responses to climate change in mountain areas, aspects and drivers of risk perception need to be scrutinised. This article presents the findings of a literature review of recent English language publications on risk perception in connection to climate change and related natural hazards in mountain regions worldwide. Studies were selected from recorded entries in JSTOR, Science Direct, Scopus and Web of Science covering the period 2000–2019 and analysed in two steps (structured exploratory analysis, n = 249 and in-depth analysis, n = 72) with respect to the studies' research question, methodology, geographical scope and risk perception drivers. The review reveals that socio-demographic factors, like gender, age and personal experiences, have a crucial impact on individual risk perception. Some of the less tangible but nevertheless decisive factors are important in mountain regions such as place attachment and socio-cultural practices. In conclusion, there is however little information in the literature which addresses the specific situation of risk perception in mountain areas and its influence on communities' responses to environmental changes. Further, we observed a strong gap concerning the integration of indigenous knowledge in risk perception research. Many studies overlook or oversimplify local knowledge and the cultural dimensions of risk perception. Based on these results, the paper identifies several gaps in research and knowledge which may influence the design of climate risk management strategies as well as on their successful implementation.
... Research suggests that glacier runoff variability will generate significant direct and indirect socioeconomic impacts. Community livelihoods in rural mountain areas can be vulnerable to small-scale environmental changes due to the interdependence among water, biodiversity, and livelihoods (Chaudhary et al. 2011;Sherpa 2014;Konchar et al. 2015). Glacier runoff variability affects aspects of local livelihoods: livestock production, irrigated agriculture, tourism income, social conflicts, and political struggles for power over water allocation practices (Mark et al. 2010;Bury et al. 2011;French, Barandiar an, and Rampini 2015). ...
... Assertions about the impacts of glacier runoff variability often lack evidence to substantiate claims, even though some studies identify multiple drivers of socioeconomic changes, such as weather extremes and changing precipitation regimes (Chaudhary et al. 2011;G. McDowell et al. 2013;Sherpa 2014). N€ usser, Schmidt, and Dame (2012) and Sherpa (2014) illustrated that the influence of climate change, glacier shrinkage, and runoff variability on local people is not always distinguished from social, political, economic, and infrastructural inequities. ...
... McDowell et al. 2013;Sherpa 2014). N€ usser, Schmidt, and Dame (2012) and Sherpa (2014) illustrated that the influence of climate change, glacier shrinkage, and runoff variability on local people is not always distinguished from social, political, economic, and infrastructural inequities. For human migration along glacier-fed waterways, evidence points less to issues of water supplies than to a range of other societal factors (Wrathall et al. 2014;Raoul 2015), which is consistent with the environmental migration literature that identifies multiple drivers of migration (e.g., Black et al. 2011). ...
... Research suggests that glacier runoff variability will generate significant direct and indirect socioeconomic impacts. Community livelihoods in rural mountain areas can be vulnerable to small-scale environmental changes due to the interdependence among water, biodiversity, and livelihoods (Chaudhary et al. 2011;Sherpa 2014;Konchar et al. 2015). Glacier runoff variability affects aspects of local livelihoods: livestock production, irrigated agriculture, tourism income, social conflicts, and political struggles for power over water allocation practices (Mark et al. 2010;Bury et al. 2011;French, Barandiar an, and Rampini 2015). ...
... Assertions about the impacts of glacier runoff variability often lack evidence to substantiate claims, even though some studies identify multiple drivers of socioeconomic changes, such as weather extremes and changing precipitation regimes (Chaudhary et al. 2011;G. McDowell et al. 2013;Sherpa 2014). N€ usser, Schmidt, and Dame (2012) and Sherpa (2014) illustrated that the influence of climate change, glacier shrinkage, and runoff variability on local people is not always distinguished from social, political, economic, and infrastructural inequities. ...
... McDowell et al. 2013;Sherpa 2014). N€ usser, Schmidt, and Dame (2012) and Sherpa (2014) illustrated that the influence of climate change, glacier shrinkage, and runoff variability on local people is not always distinguished from social, political, economic, and infrastructural inequities. For human migration along glacier-fed waterways, evidence points less to issues of water supplies than to a range of other societal factors (Wrathall et al. 2014;Raoul 2015), which is consistent with the environmental migration literature that identifies multiple drivers of migration (e.g., Black et al. 2011). ...
Glacierized mountains are often referred to as our world's water towers because glaciers both store water over time and regulate seasonal stream flow, releasing runoff during dry seasons when societies most need water. Ice loss thus has the potential to affect human societies in diverse ways, including irrigation, agriculture, hydropower, potable water, livelihoods, recreation, spirituality, and demography. Unfortunately, research focusing on the human impacts of glacier runoff variability in mountain regions remains limited, and studies often rely on assumptions rather than concrete evidence about the effects of shrinking glaciers on mountain hydrology and societies. This article provides a systematic review of international research on human impacts of glacier meltwater variability in mountain ranges worldwide, including the Andes, Alps, greater Himalayan region, Cascades, and Alaska. It identifies four main areas of existing research: (1) socioeconomic impacts; (2) hydropower; (3) agriculture, irrigation, and food security; and (4) cultural impacts. The article also suggests paths forward for social sciences, humanities, and natural sciences research that could more accurately detect and attribute glacier runoff and human impacts, grapple with complex and intersecting spatial and temporal scales, and implement transdisciplinary research approaches to study glacier runoff. The objective is ultimately to redefine and reorient the glacier-water problem around human societies rather than simply around ice and climate. By systematically evaluating human impacts in different mountain regions, the article strives to stimulate cross-regional thinking and inspire new studies on glaciers, hydrology, risk, adaptation, and human–environment interactions in mountain regions.
... Furthermore, risk assessment studies conducted in the Himalayan region identified several factors contributing to GLOF, including ice avalanches and melting glaciers. Sherpa (2014) cited that locals might have been informed or made aware of the potential threat of GLOFs from institutions, entailing local authorities, NGOs, INGOs, or mass media, thereby contributing to their perception that climate change is a severe threat. ...
... overall model of adaptive behavior. Significant proportion of women in Khumbu are getting involved in tourism-related jobs like running lodges, teashops unlike in the past when they were mainly engaged in domestic tasks and farm work (Sherpa, 2014). Fisher (1991) found that women residing alongside the tourist area in the Khumbu region are less engaged in agropastoral activity and more in service-oriented business catering to tourists. ...
Introduction
There is a dearth of empirical work on indigenous people's perception of the effectiveness of indigenous agricultural knowledge and practices for climate change adaptation, especially in the mountain region. Existing scholarships in Nepal are concentrated on people's perception of climate change and verifying the effects of socio-economic variables on adopting adaptation strategies. There is a lack of application of a socio-psychological model to scrutinize subjective and cognitive factors influencing adaptation.
Methods
This study aims to utilize the Protection Motivation Theory (PMT) to provide insights into the risk perception of climate change and the perception of adaptation efficacy of indigenous agricultural knowledge and practices. A randomly sampled questionnaire survey and focus group discussions were conducted in five villages in the Khumbu region of Nepal.
Results and discussion
The results indicated that indigenous peoples had observed changes in seasonality, a decrease in snowfall frequency, and an increase in rainfall, posing a significant threat to their lives and livelihood. The perception of adaptation efficacy assessment disclosed that indigenous knowledge is effective in adapting to changing climatic conditions. It was found that the knowledge has been evolving and remains dynamic and relevant even in the backdrop of climate change. However, there is a lack of formal recognition of indigenous knowledge by the government authorities. Hence, the study's findings accredit the significance of indigenous knowledge. From the viewpoint of the generational succession of knowledge and devising cost-effective climate change adaptation strategy, it indicates a dire need for its incorporation into local climate policies and action plans.
... Now it is a focus of study because of climate change. In the 1970s and early 80s, the human-nature relationship was one of the important themes of inquiry for anthropologists in Nepal (see von Fürer-Haimendrof 1980;Molnar 1981) and even today its popularity has not faded (see Bauer 2004;van Spengen 2010;Spoon 2011;Sherpa 2014;Poudel 2016). However, the interconnectedness of physical seasonality and social seasonality is still in the shadows. ...
... Recently, global warming has become a worldwide issue. Evidence from the Himalayan region shows that warming has escalated over the last few decades (Vetaas 2007;Government of Nepal 2010;Shrestha and Aryal 2011;ICIMOD 2011;Shrestha et al. 2012), and rapidly affected the environment and peoples' livelihoods (Salick et al. 2009;Sherpa 2014;Pandit 2017;Poudel 2018Poudel , 2020aPoudel & 2020b. Climate change has not only threatened "the water tower of Asia", but it is also disrupting interconnectedness between social and ecological systems of the Himalayan region of Nepal from its past realities and affecting communities that did not take part in the process of creating such anomalies (Poudel 2018(Poudel , 2020a. ...
... Local observations provide a detailed, place-based perspective on the wideranging impacts of global climate change (Byg and Salick 2009;Sherpa 2014) and they are especially valuable in developing relevant climate change policies, plans for community development, and sustainable strategies for adaptation (Salick 2013). Insight gained from local communities expands our understanding of local perceptions of climate change, its associated impacts, and adaptations developed within the socio-ecological framework of the community (Thaman et al. 2013). ...
... Himalayan inhabitants are intrinsically familiar with climatic variability and demonstrate immense adaptability (Byg and Salick 2009;Nakashima et al. 2012;Salick et al. 2005). Strategies for adaptation to both the geographical and seasonal variations characteristic of mountainous regions are inherently place-based (Sherpa 2014;Vedwan and Rhodes 2001) and built upon a long history of local ecological knowledge. The villagers of Manang have already undertaken several short-term adaptive measures in response to recent effects of climate change. ...
Rapid climate change in the Himalaya threatens the traditional livelihoods of remote mountain communities, challenges traditional systems of knowledge, and stresses existing socio-ecological systems. Through semi-structured interviews, participatory photography, and repeat photography focused on climate change and its impacts on traditional livelihoods, we aim to shed light on some of the socio-cultural implications of climate related change in Manang, a remote village in the Annapurna Conservation Area of Western Nepal. Observed changes in temperature, precipitation, permanent snow cover, and glacial extent directly inform villagers’ perceptions of and adaptations to Himalayan climate change. Adaptation strategies include a shift from traditional agropastoral practices to a more diversified blend of agropastoralism, tourism services, and cashcrop production. Climate change has tipped the scales in favor of the production of fruits and vegetables, cash crops previously unsuitable to the local climate. Diversification of livelihood strategies signifies transformation within the socio-ecological system of Manang and may enable greater resiliency to long-term climatic change. Continued development of relevant, place-based adaptations to rapid Himalayan climate change depends on local peoples’ abilities to understand the potential impacts of climate change and to adjust within complex, traditional socio-ecological systems.
... As shown in the paper, Tamang's perceptions of climate change are differnt. Hence, to understand the local perceptions of climate change, it is necessary to understand the social contexts of individual Tamang that they occupy in society and to understand individual access to various sources of knowledge and resources that Sherpa (2014) called social heterogeneity. Both the elderly and the young agree on one point, i.e., climate change is the consequence of human beings; however, their explanation are differently constructed. ...
Climate change has appeared as a major issue in recent years, and its impacts are seen multi-dimensionally. The local people are the key eyewitnesses of climate change, although the discourse is disciplinary, geographic, and gender biased. In this context, this paper documents the perceptions and narratives of the Tamang, an Indigenous people, who live on the outskirts of the Kathmandu Valley. This is an ethnographic study and applied quantitative and qualitative data. The data of the study were gathered using triangulation methods, i.e., household questionnaire survey (HQS), key informant interview (KII), and focus group discussion (FGD). A total of 94 HQS, nine KII, and three FGD were carried out in 2018 in three sample sites in the outskirts of the valley. The station-based observed climatic data from 1969 to 2022 were collected from the Department of Hydrology and Meteorology. The observed data shows increasing annual rainfall and temperature in Kathmandu; however, the rate of temperature increase is much larger. Seasonal precipitation shows decreasing rainfall in post-monsoon, which enhances the winter drought. The Tamang are the key eyewitness of the changes in climate and this knowledge is inbuilt with their memories which are closely bound to the place. Hence, the life history of elderly people can be an appropriate way of understanding the micro-climatic changes in the local context, which largely failed or ignored to document in scientific or macro-level assessments.
... Guided by this vision, the political machinery of regional nation states is engaged in a global environmental politics centered on maintaining social-ecological hierarchies (Lord 2016, Ojha et al. 2019. In the Khumbu this emerges as an exclusionary politics that eschews plural subject positions as well as authentic knowledge co-production with involved communities for an institutional solution, forged through geopolitical negotiations that undermine community led efforts (Sherpa 2014). Ironically, it is the cultural capital extracted from colonially and imperially constructed tropes of the Himalaya, and the exoticization of Indigenous groups like the Sherpa that catalyze economic and emotional responses among donors, activist, and aid workers across the world (Sherpa 2022). ...
... There are also reports of an upward shift of forest pests, such as the tea shot-hole borer Euwallacea fornicatus (Eichhoff). Similarly, insects, pests, and mosquitoes have emerged in Everest region (Sherpa, 2014). ...
The cryosphere of the Hindu Kush Himalaya (HKH) is an important source of water for maintaining ecosystem health, supporting biological diversity, and providing ecosystem services (very high confidence). This biodiversity-rich region – 40% of which is under protected area coverage – is characterised by interconnected and diverse ecosystems. Sixty percent of the region features seasonal cryosphere (snow, glacier, permafrost, and glacial lakes) – a major source of water and other ecosystem services (very high confidence).
However, multiple drivers of change, including climate change, are impacting the fragile HKH ecosystem and cryosphere, bringing cascading impacts on surrounding ecosystems and human wellbeing (high confidence). As a fragile ecosystem, the HKH is extremely sensitive to climate change. Widespread shrinking of the cryosphere – attributable to climate change – is resulting in glacier mass loss, snow cover reduction, shrinkage of permafrost area, changes in hydrology, and increased natural hazards and disasters (high confidence). Cascading impacts have been reported in most ecosystems, affecting most inhabitant species (high confidence). A visible range shift of species to higher elevations, ecosystem degradation and changes, decrease in habitat suitability, species decline and extinction, and invasion by alien species have been reported, both increasing the vulnerabilities of biodiversity and people and affecting their wellbeing (high confidence).
Future scenarios paint an alarming picture at the ecosystem and species levels – increased ecosystem vulnerability and lowered ecosystem services flows will result in disruptions to social–ecological resilience (high confidence). There is increasing documentation of the cascading effects of cryosphere loss on ecosystems, including ecosystem degradation and changes in species structure and composition. Predicted scenarios show more extreme events taking place, with increasing imbalances in ecosystem functions resulting in more acute societal vulnerability (high confidence).
... There are also reports of an upward shift of forest pests, such as the tea shot-hole borer Euwallacea fornicatus (Eichhoff). Similarly, insects, pests, and mosquitoes have emerged in Everest region (Sherpa, 2014). ...
... Although this is mostly the case of houses in the villages along the Everest trail, many houses toward off-route locations from this main trail have also been vibrantly renovated. Fisher (1990), Sherpa (2014), and Bhattarai (2021), in their studies, asked about the type of house the participants lived in and the building materials used. None of the participants lived in traditional thatched roof houses with wooden, stone, or mud walls. ...
In the Himalayan region of Nepal, stone masonry has been used for centuries as the primary building material for structures with or without mud mortar. In three distinct remote rural villages, a thorough structural survey of approximately 223 buildings was conducted with an emphasis on their structural irregularities. The thickness of masonry walls frequently varied between floors, which caused mass irregularities. Openings in the front wall of the buildings were not symmetrical in the vertical direction, which caused in-plane discontinuity. There were also out-of-plane offset irregularities due to the cross wall on the ground floor. These buildings were irregular in many aspects and were constructed without seismic considerations. This type of construction is more susceptible to earthquakes as a result of these irregularities. In this study, a thorough examination of a typical building was conducted using construction information obtained following the 2015 Gorkha earthquake. The database for each structural typology was prepared with an emphasis on construction practice to enhance the seismic design. The use of mud/cement mortar was extremely sparse, and the use of timber bands at various heights along the height of the masonry wall and an inappropriate connection between the wall and the roof were also negligible. The three main community-learned improvements following damage were the replacement of the gable wall with a metal sheet, the reduction of individual stone masonry homes to one story, and lighter construction on the upper stories of hotel buildings. Based on regional building techniques, non-linear finite models for typical and enhanced buildings were simulated. Due to the irregular stone units, construction variability, and constrained linear behavior, stone masonry with and without mud mortar presents difficulties in conducting a detailed numerical analysis. The development of these structures using mud/cement mortar and other regional materials, with careful attention to detail, was found to have significant potential as a seismically resilient building form.
... Scientific interest in the study of traditional ecological knowledge/indigenous knowledge began to be widespread only in the late 1970s and early 1980s (Berkes 2008). Thereafter, a great deal of research has been devoted to the importance of traditional ecological knowledge or indigenous knowledge 2 in development (Chambers 1983;Rhoades 1997;Chhetri 1999;Sillitoe and Marzano 2009), resource management and conservation (Ostrom 1990;Chhetri 2008;Jana and Paudel 2010;Stevens 2013;Basnet and Chaudhary 2017;Poudel 2020;Yatru 2021), and recently in climate change perceptions and adaptation (Adger et al. 2009;Sherpa 2014;Macchi et al. 2015). There may be three reasons behind it. ...
Traditional ways of reading nature’s clues to figure out impending weather are widely practiced in many rural societies in the world. They have been, however, often discounted by a western science-based meteorological forecasting system, although they are important sociocultural tools for mitigating climatic risks. This paper concerns two thematic issues: traditional knowledge about reading nature’s clues to figure out impending weather; and the transformation of that knowledge in the changing context of livelihood, the intervention of modern education, and use of modern weather forecasting technology. This study was carried out at Kirtipur of the Kathmandu Valley, Nepal, between 2011 and 2021. Information was collected through key informant interviews, observation, and informal discussion and survey. The findings reveal that the traditional weather forecasting system is closely intertwined with climatic phenomena, traditional agriculture practices, the local landscape, myths, and beliefs. The recognition of farmers’ knowledge on weather forecasting should be a resource of a great potential value. However, rapid expansion of the market economy, access to modern technology, affordability, access to modern education, and anthropogenic climate change have gradually detached people from their farmlands, traditional livelihoods, and occupations. All of this seems to have weakened social interaction between generations as well as their attachment to nature. Last, we conclude that the production and consumption of weather forecasting knowledge need local and scientific communities to work together to reduce knowledge gaps.
Significance Statement
The purpose of this study is to understand how farmers read nature to figure out impending weather, even as such knowledge is gradually weakening with the expansion of new technology, the intervention of modern education, the shift from farming-based to nonfarming activities for livelihood, and climate change. In such a context, the survival of traditional weather forecasting knowledge may seem uncertain. Our study reveals that traditional weather forecasting knowledge is rooted in the local landscape and subsistence farming culture. Therefore, the production and consumption of weather forecasting knowledge need local and scientific communities to work together to reduce knowledge gaps and recognize the contributions of both types of knowledge.
... Perspectives from the Himalayas: IK and LK holders in the Himalayas have conducted long-term systematic observations in these remote areas for centuries. Contemporary IK details change in phenology, weather patterns, and flora and fauna species, which enriches scientific knowledge of glacial retreat and potential glacial lake outbursts (Sherpa, 2014). The scientific community can close many knowledge gaps by engaging IK and LK holders as counterparts. ...
Framing and Context of the Report
Chapter 1
Executive Summary
This special report assesses new knowledge since the IPCC 5th Assessment Report (AR5) and the Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5oC (SR15) on how the ocean and cryosphere have and are expected to change with ongoing global warming, the risks and opportunities these changes bring to ecosystems and people, and mitigation, adaptation and governance options for reducing future risks. Chapter 1 provides context on the importance of the ocean and cryosphere, and the framework for the assessments in subsequent chapters of the report.
All people on Earth depend directly or indirectly on the ocean and cryosphere. The fundamental roles of the ocean and cryosphere in the Earth system include the uptake and redistribution of anthropogenic carbon dioxide and heat by the ocean, as well as their crucial involvement of in the hydrological cycle. The cryosphere also amplifies climate changes through snow, ice and permafrost feedbacks. Services provided to people by the ocean and/or cryosphere include food and freshwater, renewable energy, health and wellbeing, cultural values, trade and transport. {1.1, 1.2, 1.5}
Sustainable development is at risk from emerging and intensifying ocean and cryosphere changes. Ocean and cryosphere changes interact with each of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Progress on climate action (SDG 13) would reduce risks to aspects of sustainable development that are fundamentally linked to the ocean and cryosphere and the services they provide (high confidence1). Progress on achieving the SDGs can contribute to reducing the exposure or vulnerabilities of people and communities to the risks of ocean and cryosphere change (medium confidence). {1.1}
Communities living in close connection with polar, mountain, and coastal environments are particularly exposed to the current and future hazards of ocean and cryosphere change. Coasts are home to approximately 28% of the global population, including around 11% living on land less than 10 m above sea level. Almost 10% of the global population lives in the Arctic or high mountain regions. People in these regions face the greatest exposure to ocean and cryosphere change, and poor and marginalised people here are particularly vulnerable to climate-related hazards and risks (very high confidence). The adaptive capacity of people, communities and nations is shaped by social, political, cultural, economic, technological, institutional, geographical and demographic factors. {1.1, 1.5, 1.6, Cross-Chapter Box 2 in Chapter 1}
Ocean and cryosphere changes are pervasive and observed from high mountains, to the polar regions, to coasts, and into the deep ocean. AR5 assessed that the ocean is warming (0 to 700 m: virtually certain2; 700 to 2,000 m: likely), sea level is rising (high confidence), and ocean acidity is increasing (high confidence). Most glaciers are shrinking (high confidence), the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets are losing mass (high confidence), sea ice extent in the Arctic is decreasing (very high confidence), Northern Hemisphere snow cover is decreasing (very high confidence), and permafrost temperatures are increasing (high confidence). Improvements since AR5 in observation systems, techniques, reconstructions and model developments, have advanced scientific characterisation and understanding of ocean and cryosphere change, including in previously identified areas of concern such as ice sheets and Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC). {1.1, 1.4, 1.8.1}
Evidence and understanding of the human causes of climate warming, and of associated ocean and cryosphere changes, has increased over the past 30 years of IPCC assessments (very high confidence). Human activities are estimated to have caused approximately 1.0oC of global warming above pre-industrial levels (SR15). Areas of concern in earlier IPCC reports, such as the expected acceleration of sea level rise, are now observed (high confidence). Evidence for expected slow-down of AMOC is emerging in sustained observations and from long-term palaeoclimate reconstructions (medium confidence), and may be related with anthropogenic forcing according to model simulations, although this remains to be properly attributed. Significant sea level rise contributions from Antarctic ice sheet mass loss (very high confidence), which earlier reports did not expect to manifest this century, are already being observed. {1.1, 1.4}
Ocean and cryosphere changes and risks by the end-of-century (2081–2100) will be larger under high greenhouse gas emission scenarios, compared with low emission scenarios (very high confidence). Projections and assessments of future climate, ocean and cryosphere changes in the Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate (SROCC) are commonly based on coordinated climate model experiments from the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 (CMIP5) forced with Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs) of future radiative forcing. Current emissions continue to grow at a rate consistent with a high emission future without effective climate change mitigation policies (referred to as RCP8.5). The SROCC assessment contrasts this high greenhouse gas emission future with a low greenhouse gas emission, high mitigation future (referred to as RCP2.6) that gives a two in three chance of limiting warming by the end of the century to less than 2oC above pre-industrial. {Cross-Chapter Box 1 in Chapter 1}
1
1
2
In this report, the following summary terms are used to describe the available evidence: limited, medium, or robust; and for the degree of agreement: low, medium or high. A level of confidence is expressed using five qualifiers: very low, low, medium, high and very high, and typeset in italics, for example, medium confidence. For a given evidence and agreement statement, different confidence levels can be assigned, but increasing levels of evidence and degrees of agreement are correlated with increasing confidence (see Section 1.9.2 and Figure 1.4 for more details).
In this report, the following terms have been used to indicate the assessed likelihood of an outcome or a result: Virtually certain 99–100% probability, Very likely 90–100%, Likely 66–100%, About as likely as not 33–66%, Unlikely 0–33%, Very unlikely 0–10%, and Exceptionally unlikely 0–1%. Additional terms (Extremely likely: 95–100%, More likely than not >50–100%, and Extremely unlikely 0–5%) may also be used when appropriate. Assessed likelihood is typeset in italics, for example, very likely (see Section 1.9.2 and Figure 1.4 for more details). This Report also uses the term ‘likely range’ to indicate that the assessed likelihood of an outcome lies within the 17–83% probability range.
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Characteristics of ocean and cryosphere change include thresholds of abrupt change, long-term changes that cannot be avoided, and irreversibility (high confidence). Ocean warming, acidification and deoxygenation, ice sheet and glacier mass loss, and permafrost degradation are expected to be irreversible on time scales relevant to human societies and ecosystems. Long response times of decades to millennia mean that the ocean and cryosphere are committed to long-term change even after atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations and radiative forcing stabilise (high confidence). Ice-melt or the thawing of permafrost involve thresholds (state changes) that allow for abrupt, nonlinear responses to ongoing climate warming (high confidence). These characteristics of ocean and cryosphere change pose risks and challenges to adaptation. {1.1, Box 1.1, 1.3}
Societies will be exposed, and challenged to adapt, to changes in the ocean and cryosphere even if current and future efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions keep global warming well below 2oC (very high confidence). Ocean and cryosphere-related mitigation and adaptation measures include options that address the causes of climate change, support biological and ecological adaptation, or enhance societal adaptation. Most ocean-based local mitigation and adaptation measures have limited effectiveness to mitigate climate change and reduce its consequences at the global scale, but are useful to implement because they address local risks, often have co-benefits such as biodiversity conservation, and have few adverse side effects. Effective mitigation at a global scale will reduce the need and cost of adaptation, and reduce the risks of surpassing limits to adaptation. Ocean-based carbon dioxide removal at the global scale has potentially large negative ecosystem consequences. {1.6.1, 1.6.2, Cross-Chapter Box 2 in Chapter 1}
The scale and cross-boundary dimensions of changes in the ocean and cryosphere challenge the ability of communities, cultures and nations to respond effectively within existing governance frameworks (high confidence). Profound economic and institutional transformations are needed if climate-resilient development is to be achieved (high confidence). Changes in the ocean and cryosphere, the ecosystem services that they provide, the drivers of those changes, and the risks to marine, coastal, polar and mountain ecosystems, occur on spatial and temporal scales that may not align within existing governance structures and practices (medium confidence). This report highlights the requirements for transformative governance, international and transboundary cooperation, and greater empowerment of local communities in the governance of the ocean, coasts, and cryosphere in a changing climate. {1.5, 1.7, Cross-Chapter Box 2 in Chapter 1, Cross-Chapter Box 3 in Chapter 1}
Robust assessments of ocean and cryosphere change, and the development of context-specific governance and response options, depend on utilising and strengthening all available knowledge systems (high confidence). Scientific knowledge from observations, models and syntheses provides global to local scale understandings of climate change (very high confidence). Indigenous knowledge (IK) and local knowledge (LK) provide context-specific and socio-culturally relevant understandings for effective responses and policies (medium confidence). Education and climate literacy enable climate action and adaptation (high confidence). {1.8, Cross-Chapter Box 4 in Chapter 1}
Long-term sustained observations and continued modelling are critical for detecting, understanding and predicting ocean and cryosphere change, providing the knowledge to inform risk assessments and adaptation planning (high confidence). Knowledge gaps exist in scientific knowledge for important regions, parameters and processes of ocean and cryosphere change, including for physically plausible, high impact changes like high end sea level rise scenarios that would be costly if realised without effective adaptation planning and even then may exceed limits to adaptation. Means such as expert judgement, scenario building, and invoking multiple lines of evidence enable comprehensive risk assessments even in cases of uncertain future ocean and cryosphere changes. {1.8.1, 1.9.2; Cross-Chapter Box 5 in Chapter 1}
... We believe such work is essential in the Himalayas since it addresses, 1) The enduring legacy of colonial histories of knowledge, environmental determinism and hegemonic institutions that in conjunction with the instrumental epistemologies of systems theory, hazards theory and sustainable development have produced very powerful and specific narratives of Himalayan realities [29,30 ,31,1 ]. 2) The limitations of the international techno-managerial culture driving most institutional attempts at climate knowledge production. The managerial logic of identifying risks that are statistically quantifiable and proposing interventions for which solutions are available a priori, fail to address the dynamic and place-based precarities on the ground [32 , 33,34] 3) The need to present CC as a 'socially embedded set of discourses', which transcends the boundaries, and limitations of mainstream CC science [35][36][37][38]. Such a task follows suit the observation that, "those in the ESSH [environmental social sciences and humanities] who have sought to influence the thinking of GEC [global environmental change] scientists should refrain from pulling their punches" [39 ]. ...
The production of climate change knowledge is mired in issues of equity and justice. Decision-making and governance are often deeply biased towards dominant scientific/market-driven frameworks, excluding plural place-based perspectives. The characterization of the Himalayas as ‘exceptionally precarious’ to climate change builds on the enduring legacy of the Theory of Himalayan Environmental Degradation. This ignores how climatic transformations, both material and discursive, remain embedded within historic relationships of power. Recent critical scholarship has challenged such dominant, elite techno-managerial narratives. Our paper engages with such critiques to democratize Climate knowledge production pertaining to the Himalayas. Through a synthesis of scholarship in post/anti/de-colonial studies, political ecology and environmental justice we reveal the power-knowledge hierarchies undergirding climate change in the Himalayas, and draw lessons from the agency of marginalized communities. We argue for a socially just and scientifically plural framework that highlight issues of geo-political insecurity, narratives of the Anthropocene and the place-based experiences of socio-ecological change.
... A similar practice is also adopted in Manage Valley as Manangi people express their collective identity (Aase et al. 2010). Similar practices are also found among the Buddhists Sherpas of Nepal who believe that recent climatic and environmental hazards are taking place because of disrespect to the snake God, Lu, a female serpent, that is the spirit of water and land (Sherpa 2014). According to the Buddhist Sherpas, the non-Sherpas and the foreigners pollute sacred sites while diminished religious faith and behavior further contributed to weather-related miseries (Sherpa 2014, 157). ...
This paper presents community interference on agricultural ecology against climate change impacts in Lo-manthang, Upper-Mustang, Nepal. The peoples’ response strategies are based on traditional agroecological knowledge. This study applied the human ecological approach (Cause ➔ Effect ➔ Response) to analyze continuity and change in the agricultural practice of the indigenous Loba community of the Trans-Himalaya. Data were generated through anthropological fieldwork using quasi-ethnomethodology. Qualitative data on changing climate was further supported by the analysis of meteorological records of last 40 years from the nearest station. The overall impression of the study is that the Lobas are hardly adapting to the dynamics of socio-environmental factors as climatic, geo-environmental, and politico-institutional changes. The strategy adopted to respond to the impacts of change on the local livelihoods is particularly associated with altering traditional agricultural practices. Indigenous knowledge-based systems of farm, labor, and resource management, accompanied by changes in food preference (food value) and linking agriculture with spiritual practice, are specific adaptation options, further supported by emerging options such as occupational modernization and migration. However, not all of these strategies produced positive outcomes in the local socio-ecological system of Lo-manthang. Therefore, policymakers should recognize Trans-Himalayan environmental uniqueness and its sensitivity to different drivers while designing policy to address them.
... In the climate arena, science is rapidly transforming the way risks are assessed and governed in many of our institutions; infiltrating their practices, rules, norms and social, and cognitive ways of representing climate impacts (see e.g., Sheridan, 2012;Sherpa, 2014;Totin et al., 2018). Climate change uncertainties are altering the way institutions understand and respond to previously well-known risks, de-stabilizing the traditional metrics of hazards and exposure, and undermining claims to control risks, with implications for public trust in institutions (Renn, 2011;Sheridan, 2012). ...
The sudden and devastating crisis of the 2020 global pandemic put risk management front and center globally. Many analysts have already highlighted both the commonalities with, and interactions between, the COVID pandemic and climate change. They have also expressed the hope that what we learn about managing risks during the pandemic can help us manage risks related to climate change. Climate change impact shares many characteristics with the pandemic, including its global reach, the way it disproportionately and unfairly affects the poor and the vulnerable, and its non-linear and uncertain character. Both crises also engender the need to address the structural causes of vulnerability at all scales through transformational socioeconomic and political change that improves resilience to all impacts (see for example Ord, 2020). The compound and complex challenge of dealing with multiple stressors at the same time, such as climate change and public health, highlight the need for scholars of risk to think harder about how to both accelerate and
scale up the role of scientific knowledge in influencing and informing decisions on the ground. In the Climate Risk Management section, we work to advance understanding of many of the human and social processes at the heart of managing climate risk: individual perception and behavior, social institutions and organizations, the economics of action and inaction, the assets and capacities needed to build climate resilience, and the power and politics of collective action and transformative change (Morrison et al., 2020). Yet, while advancing understanding of climate risk management and urging others to act—including climate scientists, politicians, and policymakers— many social scientists have been less willing themselves to move from observing and representing to intervening and acting. This reluctance is challenging, because social science scholars have a vital role in designing and testing solutions that manage and reduce the risk
of climate change impact. Hence, our goals for the Climate Risk Management section are both about discovery and understanding as well as about how to create actionable knowledge in just and effective ways. It is with these goals in mind that, as co-editors, we crafted a number of research topics to guide the focus of the Section (https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/climate/sections/climate-risk-management). But within and beyond these topics, we highlight three grand challenges we believe have been less explored and which can further guide our ambition for the section: (1) harnessing social science knowledge toward action and resilience, (2) understanding
risk in a reflexive and consequential way, and (3) bridging the social sciences and the humanities to understand and manage risk.
... Yet in a number of ways that are interesting and politically significant, mountains are also changing and unstable sorts of entities, 4 A focus on Mt. Everest, for example, hides the complexities of tourist economies, Sherpa culture, and the fabric of social life that exist beyond the mountain (Sherpa 2014). 5 In the context of deep political divides in India and Nepal about the proper role of secularism in state politics (if any), the role of sacred landscapes in multi-layered governance narratives (which includes parts of those states) is a particularly complex one. ...
Mountain governance has emerged as new node of planetary management of non-human nature. Referencing the common ecological fates suffered by mountains around the world because of climate change, it aims to fuse ecological, political, and cultural perspectives together in a new political object. One of its central organizing categories is the sacred landscape, which is neither a purely natural object nor a socially valuable one, but rather, an exceptional sacred one to be protected, conserved, and/or developed. This chapter enquires into the production of global mountains by secular governance regimes. Against a number of accounts of environmental governance, it first argues that mountains are multiple objects, not singular natural ones. It then suggests that sacredness is a particularly problematic way of rendering these multiple mountains as singular, in ways that undermine the very ends of mountain governance. Instead, in the service of finding a more politically plural, but also more multinatural, planetary politics, the chapter proposes an analytic and political focus on routes and routing, which better show the multiple mountains that are in play in these regions, drawing on the transboundary region surrounding Mt. Kailash in the Himalayas as a case study.
... As a result, the seasonal variability of rainfall, which affects crops and energy supply, is of more concern to inhabitants than melting glaciers (P. Y. Sherpa, 2014;Puschiasis, 2015;Smadja et al., 2015). Indeed, it is estimated that rain and snowfall account for 72% of the discharge of the Dudh Koshi compared with 29% from glacial melting (Savéan, 2014). ...
This paper deals with the relationship between water, tourism and climate change in the touristy highland region of the Everest in Nepal. Tens of thousands of trekkers visit yearly this valley drained by the Dudh Koshi and its tributaries. We question water availability for tourism needs, assuming that the observed supply difficulties might be caused by the social management of the resource rather than the iffy effects of climate change. We show that the evolution regarding the way people trek brings new needs in water and electricity. It results in a new pressure on water resources since the touristy season and the hydrologic regime are misaligned. However, the pressure must be put into perspective with regard to the way inhabitants organize and plan the infrastructures for collecting and withdrawing water from the rivers. Our analyses show strong inequalities in the access of water at two distinct scales, between villages and within villages, as well as a high territorial fragmentation of water and electricity networks They bear witness to a complex social management of water and a lack of coordination at the valley scale, which threatens the sustainability of the infrastructures as well as the tourist economy.
Key words: Nepal, Everest, climate change, water, tourism
... Les habitants sont donc davantage préoccupés par la variabilité saisonnière des précipitations qui pèse sur leurs récoltes et leur fourniture en énergie, que par la fonte des glaciers (P. Y. Sherpa, 2014 ;Puschiasis, 2015 ;Smadja et al., 2015). On estime en effet que les précipitations pluvieuses et nivales comptent pour 72 % du débit de la Dudh Koshi contre 29 % issu de la fonte glaciaire . ...
This paper deals with the relationship between water, tourism and climate change in the touristy highland region of the Everest in Nepal. Tens of thousands of trekkers visit yearly this valley drained by the Dudh Koshi and its tributaries. We question water availability for tourism needs, assuming that the observed supply difficulties might be caused by the social management of the resource rather than the iffy effects of climate change. We show that the evolution regarding the way people trek brings new needs in water and electricity. It results in a new pressure on water resources since the touristy season and the hydrologic regime are misaligned. However, the pressure must be put into perspective with regard to the way inhabitants organize and plan the infrastructures for collecting and withdrawing water from the rivers. Our analyses show strong inequalities in the access of water at two distinct scales, between villages and within villages, as well as a high territorial fragmentation of water and electricity networks. They bear witness to a complex social management of water and a lack of coordination at the valley scale, which threatens the sustainability of the infrastructures as well as the tourist economy.
... As a result, the seasonal variability of rainfall, which affects crops and energy supply, is of more concern to inhabitants than melting glaciers (P. Y. Sherpa, 2014;Puschiasis, 2015;Smadja et al., 2015). Indeed, it is estimated that rain and snowfall account for 72% of the discharge of the Dudh Koshi compared with 29% from glacial melting (Savéan, 2014). ...
This paper deals with the relationship between water, tourism and climate change in the touristy highland region of the Everest in Nepal. Tens of thousands of trekkers visit yearly this valley drained by the Dudh Koshi and its tributaries. We question water availability for tourism needs, assuming that the observed supply difficulties might be caused by the social management of the resource rather than the iffy effects of climate change. We show that the evolution regarding the way people trek brings new needs in water and electricity. It results in a new pressure on water resources since the touristy season and the hydrologic regime are misaligned. However, the pressure must be put into perspective with regard to the way inhabitants organize and plan the infrastructures for collecting and withdrawing water from the rivers. Our analyses show strong inequalities in the access of water at two distinct scales, between villages and within villages, as well as a high territorial fragmentation of water and electricity networks. They bear witness to a complex social management of water and a lack of coordination at the valley scale, which threatens the sustainability of the infrastructures as well as the tourist economy.
... Attachment to place can motivate people to inhabit 355 potential flood zones, while varying local explanations of cause-effect (particularly causation between human behavior and environmental change) can also yield certain understandings of risk that collide with scientific assessments and may lead to inaction in the face of GLOF risks. Research on these cultural dimensions of glaciers is growing, elsewhere (Allison, 2015;Cruikshank, 2005;Sherpa, 2014;Sherry et al., 2018), and in the Peruvian Andes and Cordillera Blanca, where locals often perceive sentient landscapes and maintain spiritual relationships with mountains and glaciers (Bolin, 2009;Carey, 2010;De la 360 Cadena, 2015;Jurt et al., 2015). One key cultural driver of risk along the Quillcay River is the emotional and psychological attachment to place that has historically attracted people to Huaraz, even after the 1941 GLOF and 1970 earthquake devastated the city. ...
Abstract. Evidence of observed negative impacts on natural and human systems from anthropogenic climate change is increasing. However, human systems in particular are dynamic and influenced by multiple drivers, and hence identifying an anthropogenic climate signal is challenging.
Here we analyze the case of lake Palcacocha in the Andes of Peru which offers a representative model for other glacier lakes and related risks around the world because it features a dynamic evolution of flood risk driven by physical and socio-economic factors and processes. Furthermore, it is the object of a prominent climate litigation case where a local Peruvian citizen sued a large German energy producer over risk of flooding from lake Palcacocha.
Adopting a conceptual model of cascading impacts and multiple drivers of risk we first study climatic and other geophysical drivers of flood risk. We find that an anthropogenic signal related to greenhouse gas emissions is traceable. In parallel, flood risk has been strongly shaped (and increased) by interacting socio-economic, institutional and cultural processes over the past decades.
The case raises important questions of responsibility for flood risk of global and local agents which, however, are difficult to address in cases like Palcacocha where we reveal a complex network of interlinked global, national and local drivers. Following from this we outline a normative framework with a differentiated perspective on responsibility, implying that global emitters commit to support strengthening capacities in affected regions and localities, and local institutions and societies engage in local risk reduction measures and policies.
... Perspectives from the Himalayas: IK and LK holders in the Himalayas have conducted long-term systematic observations in these remote areas for centuries. Contemporary IK details change in phenology, weather patterns, and flora and fauna species, which enriches scientific knowledge of glacial retreat and potential glacial lake outbursts (Sherpa, 2014). The scientific community can close many knowledge gaps by engaging IK and LK holders as counterparts. ...
... In these settings, water, particularly stream flow, is closely linked to glacier melt, and agriculture, in turn, is sensitive both to the availability of water for irrigation and to risks of flooding. The attention to socioeconomic change could be linked to climate change because of broad associations between natural and social worlds, as ethnographers have noted for other regions (Lipset 2011(Lipset , 2013Rudiak-Gould 2012;Sherpa 2014a), though it could also reflect the importance of socioeconomic change in many societies, whether affected by climate change or not. ...
We report on anthropological research conducted in three mountain communities (in the USA, Italy and Peru), which have been directly affected by glacier retreat for over 40 years. Our mixed methods include ethnographic research, analysis of transcripts of interviews, focus groups and community meetings, and case studies of adaptation projects. Our findings indicate that local people are acute observers of change. They draw on two frames (climate change and community) in their discussions and projects but rely much more heavily on the latter frame. This pattern of drawing on the community frame, characteristic of all discussions, is most marked in the community meetings. The effectiveness of the community frame in supporting projects calls into question some widely shared notions about the role of belief in climate change as a crucial precondition for adaptation and challenges the “perceive–predict–act” model of climate change response.
... Indeed, it is forced by an external agency (here, by climate change), which is producing and reproducing a situation characterised by conflict in rhythmic cycle between the social and ecological systems in the Trans-Himalayan region of Nepal. This paper explores how the herders of Nhāson make sense of climate change by conducting climate ethnography in a specific place despite multi-sited approach proposed by the anthropologists (Crate 2011;Sherpa 2014). Geographically, climatologically, culturally and economically, Nhāson is a powerful context for climate ethnography (Poudel 2016a). ...
Satellite images, repeated photography, temperature and precipitation data, and other proxy scientific evidences support the claim that climate is changing rapidly in Nepal, including in the Trans-Himalayan regions of the country. Climate change in the Trans-Himalayan region of Nepal is altering the existing relations of functional socio-ecological system for generations. This ethnographic assessment of Nhāson village looks at the disturbance posed by climate change to the social and ecological relationship in reference to livestock management practices. It focuses on two thematic areas of communities’ verbalisation of issues and challenges faced by the mountain herders in the climate change context. This paper is the product of ethnographic study between the years 2012 and 2014 in Nhāson. The locals’ attachment to environment and witnesses of change is capable of telling the story on the disturbance of climate change in the social and ecological systems, contextually. The stories gathered during walking, herding, travelling, watching and observing of the places are “real stories” with insights into the past climate variability and fluctuation which is critically valuable to understand the environmental phenomena at times when scientific evidences are not sufficient. Ethnographic study can contribute in documenting the place and cultural specific stories as a powerful evidence to climate change and its impact on grounded social and ecological systems.
... Ainsi, notre méthode part du principe qu'agriculteurs et éleveurs s'intéressent aux variations des éléments du climat susceptibles de modifier leurs productions et leurs pratiques ( Vedwan et Rhodes, 2001). Mais, de ce fait : tous les phénomènes climatiques ne sont pas mentionnés ; les changements évoqués reposent sur ce qu'idéalement le temps ou les conditions saisonnières devraient être ( Rebetez, 1996 ;Vedwan et Rhoades, 2001 ;Harley, 2003 ;Orlove, 2003 ;Maddison, 2007) ; les agriculteurs ne retiendraient que des tendances moyennes ( West et Vasquez-Leon, 2003), ou au contraire les extrêmes ( Vedwan et Rhodes, 2001) ; ils mémorisent surtout des faits visuels (ib.) ; les réponses diffèrent selon l'âge ou le genre ( Maddison, 2007 ;Brou et Chaléard, 2007 ;Aubriot, 2014), l'origine des savoirs ( Sherpa, 2014) ou la localisation des villages ( Byg et Salick, 2009). Ces difficultés nous ont conduit à privilégier une approche qualitative reposant sur des enquêtes ouvertes ou semi-directives, directement en népali ou à l'aide d'un traducteur, auprès d'un échantillon de population représentatif dans chaque village. ...
En Himalaya, où la hausse des températures est plus élevée que la moyenne mondiale, les répercussions du changement climatique sur la ressource en eau devraient être particulièrement importantes. Tandis que les spécialistes du climat utilisant mesures et simulations nuancent ce constat en soulignant incertitudes et différences notoires entre l’ouest et l’est de la chaîne, médias et organismes de développement tendent à donner l’image uniforme d’un déficit en eau actuel et à venir. Dans le cadre d’un programme interdisciplinaire (glaciologie, hydrologie, agronomie, géographie) sur le bassin de la Koshi au Népal, nous discutons ces propos en montrant la nécessité de distinguer les situations en fonction des unités géographiques et d’intégrer dans les approches sur ce sujet le contexte culturel, social et économique. Nos enquêtes, réalisées sur quatre terrains représentatifs des milieux népalais, ont eu pour objectif de savoir si les populations constataient des variations de la ressource en eau affectant leurs pratiques (agriculture, élevage, tourisme) et si elles les attribuaient à des changements du climat. Nos résultats montrent des situations contrastées et des changements de pratiques sans relation évidente avec le climat. Ils apportent, entre autres, des informations sur la neige, paramètre mal mesuré et sous-estimé dans les simulations et montrent que les populations sont plus affectées par les fluctuations des régimes pluviométriques que par la fonte des glaciers et du manteau neigeux. Enfin, ils mettent en exergue les unités géographiques et les groupes de population les plus susceptibles d’être affectés par des variations climatiques.
... Essentially, these examples illustrate the intersection between human action and spiritual agency in causing climate change. The spiritual and religious transgressions of humans, usually outsiders, set off a chain reaction, angering local deities, and result in punishment in the form of natural disasters (Byg & Salick, 2009;Sherpa, 2014). Again, these causal models of climate change appear to be deeply influenced by religious beliefs and might require different intervention approaches than climate change models which don't have a religious component. ...
People can take extraordinary measures to protect that which they view as sacred. They may refuse financial gain, engage in bloody, inter-generational conflicts, mount hunger strikes and even sacrifice their lives. These behaviors have led researchers to propose that religious values shape our identities and give purpose to our lives in a way that secular incentives cannot. However, despite the fact that many cultural and religious frameworks already emphasize sacred aspects of our natural world, applying all of that motivating power of " the sacred " to environmental protectionism seems to be less straightforward. Sacred elements in nature do lead people to become committed to environmental causes, particularly when religious identities emphasize conceptualization of humans as caretakers of this planet. In other cases, however, it is precisely the sacred aspect of nature which precludes environmental action and leads to the denial of climate change. This denial can take many forms, from an outright refusal of the premise of climate change to a divine confirmation of eschatological beliefs. A resolution might require rethinking the framework that religion provides in shaping human-environment interactions. Functionalist perspectives emphasize religion's ability to help people cope with loss—of life, property and health, which will become more frequent as storms intensify and weather patterns become more unpredictable. It is uncertain whether religious identity can facilitate the acceptance of anthropogenic climate change, but perhaps it can aid with how people adapt to its inevitable effects.
... They accused a group of Japanese climbers of frightening local communities by exaggerating the dangers of a GLOF during interviews. Sherpa ( 2014 ) also described such local attitudes toward scientists. As mentioned previously, an international team attempted to establish an early warning system by using a wireless LAN setup with geo-ICT tools and technologies with a local community (Fukui et al. 2008 ). ...
This chapter explores the relationship between research on glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs), a lack of communication of results, and resultant confusion among local inhabitants. First, this chapter reviews the progress of research on Imja Glacial Lake (Imja Tsho) in the Mt. Everest region of Nepal, one of the most extensively studied lakes in the Himalaya and which is considered by some to be among the most dangerous lake. Secondly, the lack of community involvement in Imja Glacial Lake research since studies began in the late 1980s is covered, followed by a discussion of the confusion that communities have felt as a result of conflicting opinions regarding the lake’s actual risk of flooding. Thirdly, we argue for the need of a “science-based, community-driven” approach to glacial lake and other climate change research in the interests of finding meaningful and effective solutions to contemporary problems. Developing a new framework of research, community involvement, and action will be important not only for local communities but also for scientists in GLOF-prone areas of the Himalaya as well as elsewhere in the world.
... First, considerations of vulnerability and adaptation in the context of climate change require, methodologically, greater social-ecological integration; in particular, attention must be paid to the deeply interwoven, mutually constitutive, and emergent relationships between social and ecological processes. This requires intense interdisciplinary engagement between the natural and social sciences (Casagrande et al. 2007) and, in particular, grounding in local knowledge (Sherpa 2014), even when that "knowledge" comes from self-avowed skeptics and deniers. Second, research should orient assessments toward future climate change impacts, as solely relying on past experience can eschew the uniqueness of future threats. ...
Current projections of future climate change foretell potentially transformative ecological changes that threaten communities globally. Using two case studies from the United States Intermountain West, this article highlights the ways in which a better articulation between theory and methods in research design can generate proactive applied tools that enable locally grounded dialogue about the future, including key vulnerabilities and potential adaptive pathways. Moreover, anthropological knowledge and methods, we find, are well-suited to the complexities and uncertainties that surround future climate change. In this article, we outline a narrative-driven assessment methodology we call multi-scale, iterative scenario building (MISB) that adheres to four key principles: (1) meaningful integration of socioecological interactions, (2) engagement with uncertainty, (3) awareness and incorporation of dynamic spatial and temporal scales, and (4) inclusion of diverse knowledge(s) from both social and natural sciences as well as from communities, including skeptics and deniers. The research found that MISB illuminated the complex, relational nature of vulnerability and adaptation and provided significant insight into potential, and sometimes surprising, future conflicts, synergies, and opportunities. We also found that MISB engendered a deep appreciation among participants, even skeptics and deniers, about the numerous, multi-scaled feedbacks and path dependencies generated by interacting drivers of social and ecological change. In conclusion, we argue this approach provides substantial space for the reflexive learning needed to create the “critical emancipatory knowledge” required in the face of transformational threats like climate change, and as such, we suggest potential avenues to support planning a nd decision making in the face of uncertain futures.
... However, as a result, not all climatic phenomena were mentioned; the changes referred to were based on what the weather or seasonal conditions should ideally be (Rebetez, 1996; Vedwan and Rhoades, 2001; Harley, 2003; Orlove, 2003; Maddison, 2007); farmers are thought to remember only average trends (West and Vasquez-Leon, 2003) or, on the contrary, extremes (Vedwan and Rhodes, 2001); they retain visual facts in particular (ibid.); their answers differ according to age or gender (Maddison, 2007; Brou and Chaléard, 2007; Aubriot, 2014), the source of knowledge (Sherpa, 2014) or village location (Byg and Salick, 2009). These difficulties prompted us to opt for a qualitative approach based on open or semidirective enquiries, directly in Nepali or with the help of a translator, among a representative population sample in each village. ...
In the Himalayas, where the increase in temperatures is higher than the world average, climate change is expected to impact water resources in a particularly significant manner. Whereas climate specialists using measurements and simulations play down this statement by underlining uncertainties and differences between the west and east of the range, the media and development agencies tend to paint a uniform picture of a water shortage now and in the future. As part of an interdisciplinary programme (glaciology, hydrology, agronomy, geography) in the Koshi basin in Nepal, we discuss these remarks, while stressing the need to distinguish between situations according to the geographical units and to take into account the cultural, social and economic context when addressing this subject. The investigations that we carried out at four fieldwork sites, which are representative of Nepalese milieus, aimed to find out whether populations noticed any variations in water resources that affected their practices (farming, livestock breeding, tourism) and if they attributed them to climate change. Our results show contrasting situations and changes in practices with no obvious connection to the climate. Among other things, they provide information about snow, a parameter that has been measured incorrectly and underestimated in simulations, and they show that populations are more affected by fluctuations in rainfall patterns than by the melting of glaciers and the snow cover. Lastly, they highlight the geographical units and population groups most likely to be affected by climatic variations.
... 31,128 Sherpas, who inhabit the high elevations of Nepal in the Mount Everest region, invoke both scientific and religious interpretations to explain observed environmental changes such as melting glaciers and GLOFs. 129,130 Sherpas cite changing weather patterns, pollution of the sacred Khumbu beyul, a declining belief in gods and spirits, and the displeasure of local deities as causes of environmental change. 129,131 As a sacred landscape, the land requires reverence to sustain human habitation. ...
Climate change has largely been understood as a biophysical, economic, and political phenomenon. This approach has obscured the ways in which climate change also poses a challenge to human subjective understandings of self and society in relation to place, and in relation to perceptions of the sacred. Glaciers, as dominant features of high mountain landscapes, are sites of easily observable consequences of climate change, grounding the consequences of distant carbon emissions in material surroundings. They are also sites of powerful sacred and symbolic meanings for local communities. This review examines three instances of glacial decline in sacred mountain landscapes, in the Peruvian Andes, the Nepalese Himalaya, and the Meili Snow Mountains of Yunnan, China. These examples show that glacial decline is not simply a material process, but also has important implications for the ways that local people understand themselves and make meaning in relation to their surroundings. Locally grounded values arising from particular experiences of the landscape, especially from those most at risk from effects of climate change, may offer new avenues of ethical reflection around climate change that can and should influence larger climate discourses. WIREs Clim Change 2015, 6:493–508. doi: 10.1002/wcc.354
This article is categorized under: Social Status of Climate Change Knowledge > Sociology/Anthropology of Climate Knowledge
Trans‐Disciplinary Perspectives > Humanities and the Creative Arts
Mainstream environmentalism remains tethered to Malthusian overpopulation scenarios, authoritarian protectionism through exclusionary conservation policies, and ecomodernist climate adaptation/mitigation projects. Therefore, hegemonic mainstream environmentalism (HME) in many ways fails to address its colonial, authoritarian, essentializing overtures, which continue to insidiously motivate much of environmentalism and environmental policy. But there are also ongoing challenges to this by the work of indigenous, feminist, anti-racist, anti-casteist, and anti/de/post-colonial thinkers and doers. In this work we build upon such provocations to challenge the problematic roots of modern, mainstream environmentalism and its role in supporting certain visions of the Anthropocene. We propose a temporary analytical frame that advocates for non-elite visions of environmentalism—non-elite and more-than-colonial environmentalisms (NEMCE). Our analytical offering highlights three processes which non-elite communities are involved in from across the majority world. These are attempting to domesticate capitalism, mobilize plurinational placemaking, and finally challenge the algorithmic thinking of digital environmental governance. Taken together the three processes above present a powerful response to HME, revealing its insidious reproduction of certain elite subjectivities, ideologies, and institutions, while claiming to support planetary visions of ecological wellbeing.
Adaptation (i.e., actions that reduce the harms caused by climate change) is widely recognized as one of two pillars of climate action, along with mitigation (i.e., actions that reduce the concentrations of greenhouse gases which cause climate change). Action to date in both pillars is widely recognized as insufficient. This article argues that a major source of this deficiency of adaptation is ambiguity in the concept of adaptation, which hinders planning and implementation of action. The review traces the origins and consequences of this ambiguity and examines three major conceptual obstacles: the unclear relationship between adaptation and mitigation, the tendency to define adaptation by listing distinct types that are not directly comparable and hence difficult to measure, and a persistent separation of short-term and long-term perspectives that limits the ability to build from current action to transformation. The article identifies recent efforts that have addressed these obstacles, although new areas of concern have emerged, particularly maladaptation and Loss and Damage.
Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Environment and Resources, Volume 47 is October 2022. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.
The IPCC reports represent a powerful discursive and institutional undertaking. However, the IPCC has faced criticism for its different organizational and functional biases which include a geographical bias favoring experts from the global north, a gender bias in favor of men, a disciplinary bias in favor of the natural sciences over the social sciences and humanities, and finally, a cosmological bias favoring western science over indigenous knowledges. In recent years, scholars have noted changes in the IPCC, pointing at the inclusion of social science/humanities perspectives and a growing engagement with plural worldviews. Despite such forays, all aspects of knowledge production within the IPCC still echo the aspirations of nation states and quantitative models of attribution and detection. Climate knowledge production in the Himalayan region reflects this reality. In this essay, we focus on our personal experiences with local communities from the Himalayas and bring it in dialogue with our experiences with the IPCC knowledge production process. In doing so, we have two objectives: first, to highlight marginalized stories of climate-society relationships that challenge normative climate science/policy and, second, in light of these stories, suggest some salient considerations required to foreground justice and equity in futureengagements with the IPCC, which explores the production of democratic knowledge and how such knowledge can be wielded to achieve regional climate justice.
International surveys suggest people increasingly agree the climate is changing and humans are the cause. One reading of this is that people have adopted the scientific point of view. Based on a sample of 28 ethnographic cases we argue that this conclusion might be premature. Communities merge scientific explanations with local knowledge in hybrid ways. This is possible because both discourses blame humans as the cause of the changes they observe. However, the specific factors or agents blamed differ in each case. Whereas scientists identify carbon dioxide producers in particular world regions, indigenous communities often blame themselves, since, in many lay ontologies, the weather is typically perceived as a local phenomenon, which rewards and punishes people for their actions. Thus, while survey results show approval of the scientific view, this agreement is often understood differently and leads to diverging ways of allocating meaning about humans and the weather.
This chapter explores the cultural dimensions of human security by problematizing the nature of knowledge on climate, climate change, and human security, including its inherent relation with power and varying perceptions across cultures in Asia. The analysis is based on an extensive review of studies that attempt to capture the underlying cultural factors of vulnerability and adaptation. Grounded on an anthropological perspective, the chapter covers the profoundness of culture and its importance in climate change and disaster research from its most popular element of indigenous knowledge and practices to material structures and technology across time and space, different ways of thinking, and ethical considerations. Anthropological approaches that academics and practitioners could use to address human security are also discussed. These simply refer to the set of viewpoints that can be used to frame the analysis of cultural dimensions of human security as informed by theories and practice in anthropology. We argue that adding the concept of human security to climate change and disaster research brings the discourse into a realm foregrounding the human experience to motivate a more powerful political action.
Mountain ecosystems are considered vulnerable to early impacts of climate change. Whether and how local residents of these areas perceive these changes, however, remain under-studied questions. By conducting a household survey in the Khumbu region of Nepal, this study assessed local residents' experience-based perception of changes in climate trends and patterns, perceived risk, and attitudes towards climate issues. Multivariate cluster analysis based on residents' climate change beliefs revealed three segments: "Cautious," "Disengaged," and "Alarmed." A comparison of these segments along key psychosocial constructs of Protection Motivation Theory (PMT) revealed significant inter-segment differences in residents' perception of severity, vulnerability, response efficacy, self-efficacy, and response cost associated with engaging in mitigating behavior. Results shed light on how residents of high elevation areas that are considered to be exposed to early impacts of climate change perceive the risk and intend to respond. These findings could also assist stakeholders working in other similar mountain ecosystems in understanding vulnerability and in working towards climate readiness.
Evidence of observed negative impacts on natural and human systems from anthropogenic climate change is increasing. However, human systems in particular are dynamic and influenced by multiple drivers and hence identifying an anthropogenic climate signal is challenging. Here we analyze the case of lake Palcacocha in the Andes of Peru, which offers a representative model for other glacier lakes and related risks around the world because it features a dynamic evolution of flood risk driven by physical and socioeconomic factors and processes. Furthermore, it is the object of a prominent climate litigation case, wherein a local Peruvian citizen sued a large German energy producer over risk of flooding from lake Palcacocha. Adopting a conceptual model of cascading impacts and multiple drivers of risk, we first study climatic and other geophysical drivers of flood risk. We find that an anthropogenic signal from flood risk to greenhouse gas emissions is traceable. In parallel, flood risk has been strongly shaped (and increased) by interacting socioeconomic, institutional and cultural processes over the past few decades. The case raises important questions about the differentiation of responsibilities relating to flood risk of both global and local agents, which are, however, difficult to address in cases like Palcacocha, where we reveal a complex network of interlinked global, national and local drivers. Following from this, we outline a normative framework with a differentiated perspective on responsibility, implying that global emitters commit to support strengthening capacities in affected regions and localities and that local institutions and societies engage in local risk reduction measures and policies in collaboration with and driven by local communities.
In the Himalayas, water is seen by some as intricately linked to humans and produced through ethical actions. Its materiality, as a lack or excess of rain or snow, as healthy or receding ice, as destructive hail or flash flood, is a reflection of humans' moral attitude and an outcome of a process of reciprocity that links humans to nonhumans, the land, and divine beings. This perspective departs from the conception of water seen through development projects and from studies about climate change, which tend to objectify water through an epistemology that isolates nature from culture. Water as the materiality of ethics is examined by drawing on cases from Ladakh and Zanskar in the Himalayas and by reviewing studies from other parts of the Himalayas. In particular, water as the materiality of ethics is analyzed through three perspectives: how water is produced as people interact with a sacred geography, how snowy peaks are produced as objects of morality through affective attachment and encounters, and how water is produced as part of multispecies assemblages. A review of an ontology of water defined by reciprocity is important considering the significant changes currently taking place in the Himalayas and which are brought about by climate change and state production through large‐scale development projects. It can enrich our understanding of their implications for the cultural life of the often marginalized peoples of the Himalayas and contribute to narratives about the Anthropocene.
This article is categorized under:
• Human Water > Water as Imagined and Represented
• Human Water > Rights to Water
Purpose
Adaptation appears to be regarded as a panacea in policy circles to reduce the risk of impending crises resulting from contemporary changes, including but not restricted to climate change. Such conceptions can be problematic, generally assuming adaptation as an entirely positive and non-conflictual process. The purpose of this paper is to challenge such uncritical views, drawing attention to the conflictual nature of adaptation, and propose a theoretical framework facilitating the identification and analysis of conflicts in adaptation.
Design/methodology/approach
The study is based on case study research using first-hand narratives of adaptation in Nepal and the Maldives collected using qualitative interviews, participant observation and document analysis.
Findings
The findings identify conflicts between actors in, and around, communities that are adapting to changes. These conflicts can be categorized along three dimensions: qualitative differences in the type of conflict, the relative position of conflicting actors and the degree of manifestation of the conflict.
Originality/value
The three-dimensional Adaptation Conflict Framework facilitate analysis of conflicts in adaptation, allowing for a critical examination of subjectivities inherent in the adaptation discourses embedded in disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation research and policy. Such an inquiry is crucial for interventions supporting community adaptation to reduce disaster risk.
There is a growing recognition of the contribution of the cryosphere to human societies. This is especially important in the Hindu Kush Himalaya (HKH), where poverty and vulnerability are high and climate change impacts on the cryosphere are strong. However, there is a lack of synthesized knowledge about the contributions of the cryosphere to high mountain communities. This paper uses a cryosphere service framework-a derivative of the ecosystem service concept-to classify different goods and services provided by the cryosphere. Case studies were selected using an adapted systematic review methodology. These studies were then synthesized and examined through the lens of critical political ecology. The review shows that while the cryosphere provides a whole range of goods and services for mountain communities, not all of these are well documented. Material services like the supply of water for irrigation and agriculture, and disservices such as disasters, are better documented than non-material services like the spirituality of landscapes. The majority of the case studies do not use an interdisciplinary lens. While some studies on irrigation discuss the physical basis and human organization of irrigation, the literature on disasters mostly focuses on the physical processes and at most generalized loss and damage assessments. Further, most case studies do not use the critical epistemologies needed to examine how politics, power, and intersectionality influence societal responses to changes in the cryosphere. The paper suggests that future studies adopt interdisciplinary collaboration to understand human impacts and adaptive responses through critical political ecology frameworks.
Climate change is global phenomena.
Anthropologists focus more on impact of climate
change on human being and their way of life in
general. In this article I have focused on how climate
change is understood, its major indicators, impacts
in the Himalayas, and Upper Mustang, Nepal. As the
livestock management was one of the most crucial
aspect of Loba livelihood, major questions is how
livestock management has affected. This paper
explores the role of livestock in livelihood as well
as rituals and ceremonies, tourism, transportation,
fuel etc. Important factors are involved change in
livestock management such as changes in rainfall,
average maximum and minimum temperature rise
in all seasons, changes in pattern of North wind,
extension of winter, extreme weather condition,
GLOFs, and closure the access to pasture to Tibet,
China. In this context the Lobas have faced their
management of livestock on grazing and pasture,
Àä ¸ek�sources, diseases, cold and heat problem
Dans un contexte de recul des glaciers causé par le changement climatique et d'augmentation des besoins en eau due à l'accroissement de la population et au développement économique, quantifier les contributions à l'origine des écoulements dans les bassins versants de montagne himalayens est nécessaire à la gestion de la ressource en eau actuelle ainsi qu'à la recherche de solutions d'adaptation aux impacts du changement climatique.La modélisation hydrologique est un outil adapté à la compréhension du fonctionnement des bassins versants de montagne cependant, le manque de données météorologique dans les régions de haute altitude et la représentation simplifiée des processus cryosphériques dans les modèles hydrologiques induisent de fortes incertitudes sur la simulation des débits dans les rivières.Cette thèse vise à quantifier les différentes contributions aux écoulements ainsi que leurs variations saisonnières à l'échelle locale en appliquant un modèle glacio-hydrologique dans un bassin englacé de l'Himalaya népalais.Une nouvelle paramétrisation de l'albédo de la neige et de la fonte des glaciers couverts ainsi qu'une implémentation d'un module d'avalanche sont ajoutés dans le modèle DHSVM-GDM pour améliorer la simulation du couvert neigeux et de l'évolution des glaciers.L'analyse du bilan hydrologique simulé avec la nouvelle configuration du modèle montre que les glaciers jouent un rôle important sur les débits à l'exutoire, notamment en hiver où les débits sont principalement contrôlés par l'écoulement de l'eau liquide stockée dans les glaciers.Cette thèse met en relief la difficulté de quantifier la contribution des glaciers dans les débits de rivière, en effet, sur le bassin étudié, cette contribution est estimée à 45 % de l'écoulement total si on considère la part des écoulements issus de la fonte de glace, ou bien à 70 % si on considère la part des écoulements provenant des zones englacées.L'incertitude des résultats de modélisation est étudiée en évaluant les impacts de la représentation des processus dans le modèle et de l'incertitude des données de forçage sur la simulation des contributions aux écoulements.L'incertitude sur la surface englacée dans le bassin génère une incertitude de 20 % sur le volume de fonte de glace simulé et l'incertitude sur les données de précipitations aboutit à une estimation de la contribution de la fonte de glace aux écoulements est comprise entre 28 et 70 % des débits annuels.
Land use and land cover (LULC) changes that occurred during 1992–2011 in Sagarmatha National Park, a United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization World Heritage Site in the Himalayas of eastern Nepal, were evaluated using multitemporal satellite imagery in combination with land use data and sociological information gathered from semistructured interviews and workshops. We asked study participants about LULC changes, the causes of each change, and the likely duration of its effects, and used this information to produce high-resolution maps of local perceptions of LULC change. Satellite image analysis revealed that above 6000 m there has been a decrease in the area covered by snow and ice and a consequent expansion of glacial lakes and areas covered by rock and soil. Between 3000 and 6000 m, forest and farmland are decreasing, and areas under grazing, settlement, and shrubland are increasing. Such LULC changes within the protected area clearly indicate the prevailing danger of land degradation. Results from the interviews and workshops suggest that people tended to detect LULC change that was acute and direct, but were less aware of slower changes that could be identified by satellite imagery analysis. Most study participants said that land use changes were a result of rapid economic development and the consequent pressure on natural resources, especially in the tourism industry and especially below 6000 m elevation, as well as limitations to protected area management and a period of civil war. Human influence coupled with climate change may explain the changes at higher elevations, whereas anthropogenic activities are solely responsible in lower areas. Although global factors cannot be mitigated locally, many of the local drivers of LULC change could be addressed with improved management practices that aid local conservation and development in this high mountain ecosystem. A broader interdisciplinary approach to LULC change should include a mix of satellite image analysis and local observations.
PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to show the complexity in dealing with climate change adaptation at the local level, and to show how social and institutional factors in addition to the ecological challenges contribute to that complexity.
Methodology/approachThis paper examines four institutional climate change activities and reveals how institutions currently address climate change, and how the Sherpas are involved in the process. It draws on three sorts of material: the interviews and observations conducted during my field research in 2010 and 2011; my personal experiences as a Sherpa woman; my recent participation in Sherpa face-to-face and online communities.
FindingsOrganizing institutional climate change activities to draw international attention alone are not sufficient to address climate change adaptation issues. Communities at the local level cannot be assumed to be homogeneous entities. Institutional climate change adaptation efforts cannot assume that by reaching out to a few individuals in the region they will benefit the whole. Institutional activities have increased receptivity to scientific climate change knowledge, but it has also increased fear of an impending doom, and anger over the continuous discussion of climate change without concrete actions.
Research implicationsFuture research in the Everest region should include residents from all ethnic groups considering their historical contacts and interactions.
Originality/valueIt is crucial that not only the Sherpa agency (or lack of agency) or understandings are examined but the institutional engagements and delivery are also assessed to practically, effectively, and sustainably address the challenges of climate change adaptation.
Analyses of maximum temperature data from 49 stations in Nepal for the period 1971-94 reveal warming trends after 1977 ranging from 0.06°to 0.12°C yr-1 in most of the Middle Mountain and Himalayan regions, while the Siwalik and Terai (southern plains) regions show warming trends less than 0.03°C yr-1. The subset of records (14 stations) extending back to the early 1960s suggests that the recent warming trends were preceded by similar widespread cooling trends. Distributions of seasonal and annual temperature trends show high rates of warming in the high-elevation regions of the country (Middle MOuntains and Himalaya), while low warming or even cooling trends were found in the southern regions. This is attributed to the sensitivity of mountainous regions to climate changes. The seasonal temperature trends and spatial distribution of temperature trends also highlight the influence of monsoon circulation. The Kathmandu record, the longest in Nepal (1921-94), shows features similar to temperature trends in the Northern Hemisphere, suggesting links between regional trends and global scale phenomena. However, the magnitudes of trends are much enhanced in the Kathmandu as well as in the all-Nepal records. The authors' analyses suggest that contributions of urbanization and local land use/cover changes to the all-Nepal record are minimal and that the all-Nepal record provides an accurate record of temperature variations across the entire region.
) clean glaciers by as much as 50 percent of the ca. 1955 volumes at elevations ranging from approximately 5500-5600 masl, (c) the formation of new and potentially dangerous glacial lakes that had been debris covered glaciers (D-Type) in the 1950s, and (d) the ablation of most of the D-Type glaciers re-photographed. The findings support and complement those of recent investigations based almost entirely on remote sensing and computer modelling. However, detailed, on-the-ground field studies of potential climate change impacts on the people and environments of the Mt. Everest region are disturbingly absent. I suggest that only by systematically combining field and laboratory-based investigations will we acquire the tools to enable us to identify the real threats, non-threats, and ways in which local people can adapt and reduce vulnerabilities to climate change.
Understanding the challenge that climate change poses and crafting appropriate adaptation and mitigation mechanisms requires input from the breadth of the natural and social sciences. Anthropology's in-depth fieldwork methodology, long engagement in questions of society–environment interactions and broad, holistic view of society yields valuable insights into the science, impacts and policy of climate change. Yet the discipline's voice in climate change debates has remained a relatively marginal one until now. Here, we identify three key ways that anthropological research can enrich and deepen contemporary understandings of climate change.
This review provides an overview of foundational climate and culture studies in anthropology; it then tracks developments in this area to date to include anthropological engagements with contemporary global climate change. Although early climate and culture studies were mainly founded in archaeology and environmental anthropology, with the advent of climate change, anthropology's roles have expanded to engage local to global contexts. Considering both the unprecedented urgency and the new level of reflexivity that climate change ushers in, anthropologists need to adopt cross-scale, multistakeholder, and interdisciplinary approaches in research and practice. I argue for one mode that anthropologists should pursue—the development of critical collaborative, multisited ethnography, which I term “climate ethnography.”
The Imja Glacier Lake (Imja Tsho) (1.03 km2 in 2007) is repeatedly cited as one of the most dangerous glacial lakes in the Himalaya with a glacial lake outburst flood (GLOF) claimed to be imminent. Knowledge of lake development and its dynamics, however, is limited and forecasts of a possible outburst are not scientifically based. Nevertheless, prospects for such a catastrophe are repeatedly exaggerated, attracting alarmist mass media coverage. The paper provides an assessment of the lake expansion rates from 1956 to 2007. Stage 1 (1956–1975), slowest: coalescence of several small supra-glacial ponds; Stage 2 (1975–1978), a short period of most rapid expansion; Stage 3 (1978–1997), slow: gradual expansion of single lake; and Stage 4 (1997–2007), renewed acceleration: mainly eastward expansion into the glacier surface. The lake's water level has fallen from 5041 m to 5004 m (1964–2006). The results show that there is no immediate danger of catastrophic outburst although the dynamics of up-glacier and down-valley lake expansion, fluctuation of lake water level, and dead-ice morphology changes should be continuously and comprehensively monitored. Alarmist prognostications based solely upon rapid areal expansion are counterproductive.
Recent climate changes have had a significant impact on the high-mountain glacial environment. Rapid melting of glaciers has resulted in the formation and expansion of moraine-dammed lakes, creating a potential danger from glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs). Most lakes have formed during the second half of the 20th century. Glaciers in the Mount Everest (Sagamartha) region, Nepal, are retreating at an average rate of 10–59 m a –1 . From 1976 to 2000, Lumding and Imja Glaciers retreated 42 and 34 m a –1 , respectively, a rate that increased to 74 m a –1 for both glaciers from 2000 to 2007. During the past decade, Himalayan glaciers have generally been shrinking and retreating faster while moraine-dammed lakes have been proliferating. Although the number of lakes above 3500 m a.s.l. has decreased, the overall area of moraine-dammed lakes is increasing. Understanding the behaviour of glaciers and glacial lakes is a vital aspect of GLOF disaster management.
Climate change can be particularly hard-hitting for small underdeveloped countries, relying heavily on natural resources for
the economy and livelihoods. Nepal is one among these countries, being landlocked, with diverse physiographical characteristics
within a relatively small territory and with rugged terrain. Poverty is widespread and the capacity of people and the country
to cope with climate change impact is low. The country is dominated by the Asian monsoon system. The main occupation is agriculture,
largely based on rain-fed farming practices. Tourism based on high altitude adventures is one of the major sources of income
for the country. Nepal has a large hydropower potential. While only 0.75% of the theoretical hydropower potential has been
tapped, Nepal can greatly benefit from this natural resource in the future. Climate change can adversely impact upon water
resources and other sectors of Nepal. The source of water is mainly summer monsoon precipitation and the melting of the large
reserve of snow and glaciers in the Himalayan highlands. Observations show clear evidences of significant warming. The average
trend in the country is 0.06°C per year. The warming rates are progressively higher for high elevation locations. The warming
climate has resulted in rapid shrinking of majority of glaciers in Nepal. This paper presents state-of-knowledge on the glacial
dynamics in the country based on studies conducted in the past in Shorong, Khumbu, Langtang, Dhaulagiri and Kanchenjunga regions
of Nepal. We present recent trends in river flow and an overview of studies on expected changes in the hydrological regime
due to climate change. Formation, growth and likely outburst of glacial lake are phenomena directly related to climate change
and deglaciation. This paper provides a synopsis of past glacial lake outburst floods impacting Nepal. Further, likely impacts
of climate change on other sectors such as agriculture, biodiversity, human health and livelihoods are discussed.
KeywordsHimalayas–Glacial lake outburst flood–Glacier fluctuations–River discharge–Livelihoods
Melt rates of the dead ice in front of "Imja Glacier Lake' varied between 0.1 and 2.7 m/yr during the period 1989-1994. A maximum in excess of 5.0 m/yr occurred where the ice surface had been submerged by lake water before 1994. The lake level fell from 5022 m asl in 1984 to about 5017 m in 1989, and to about 5007 m in 1994. This decrease is atributed to melt of dead ice along the outflow; thus there is less danger of collapse of the lateral moraines. Instead, the rapid melting is expected to cause the lake to expand westward, that is towards the terminal moraine. Maximum dimensions by the winter of 1992, is due to melting of the glacier at the east (upper) end of the lake. Nevertheless, if the melt rate is sustained the western shoreline could migrate to the edge of the terminal moraine in little more than seven years. Immediate action to lower the lake level below the level of the spillway is needed. -from Authors
The social sciences face a set of complex challenges in an era of intensifying global connections that seem to undermine their constitutive object. Cultures, nations and even societies are not what they used to be, and the 'methodological nationalism' that once qualified the social sciences is no longer self-evident. One of the manifest perforations of local communities comes with the experience of dramatic climate change. Based on fieldwork in northwest Greenland, this article addresses the question of scaling through discussions of conversations, connections and concerns surfacing in the field, yet vastly transcending the local. This enables a new understanding of the inherent complexity of scaling and of the field itself as a plastic space, where the fieldworker's attention may stretch and bend according to situation and perspective.
The growth of a lake on the Imja Glacier, Khumbu Himal, was traced from maps and photographs supplied by several sources. There were five small ponds in the 1950s. A single lake with islands formed by 1975. A small island existing in 1978 had disappeared in 1980. The lake area was 0.54 km2 in 1984, and had become slightly larger by 1991. The comparison of the lake water volumes of "Imja Glacier Lake' and of the lakes which burst in 1977 and 1985 suggests that future outbursts of "Imja Glacier Lake' may cause catastrophic damage below. Today, the spillway morphology at the surface of the debris-covered ice near the glacier terminus is changing noticeably, indicating rapid expansion of the lake toward the west. As this proceeds, the possibility for catastrophic outburst will become greater, even if the lake level is lowered. Recent observations indicate a maximum depth of more than 90m and an average depth of 40-50m; thus the potential for a major outburst is much higher than previously anticipated. Glaciological and hydrological investigations and a monitoring program should be undertaken in order to mitigate potential catastrophic damage at the lower elevations. -Authors
Inhabitants of mountainous regions in least developed countries are recognized to be among the most vulnerable to climate change globally. Despite this, human dimensions work is in its infancy in mountain regions where we have limited understanding of who is vulnerable (or adaptable), to what stresses, and why. This study develops a baseline understanding of vulnerability to climate-related hydrological changes in the mountainous Khumbu region of eastern Nepal. Using a vulnerability approach, 80 interviews combining fixed and open-ended questions were conducted in four communities representing the geographic and livelihood variability of the region. The study identifies four region-wide vulnerabilities currently affecting residents: reduced water access for household uses, declining crop yields, reduced water access for meeting the high water demands of tourists, and reduced hydro-electricity generation. These vulnerabilities are widespread among the population but arrange spatially as a function of varying exposure-sensitivity to hydrological change, livelihood opportunities, and access to foreign financial assistance. Our findings indicate that precipitation change (not glacial change) is the greatest biophysical driver of vulnerability.
This study examines how apple farmers in the western Himalayas of India perceive climatic change. This is done by comparing the locally idealized traditional weather cycle with climate change as perceived by the farmers of the region. We use snowfall and rainfall data from 1962-1996 to measure the accuracy of perceptions. Although climate change is usually described by farmers as the temporal displacement of the weather cycle, the changes themselves still are not perceived as altering the idealized weather calendar. Most importantly, perception of climate change is structured by knowledge of crop-climate interaction and by differential apple performance outcomes associated with the changed conditions.
The ecological knowledge and understanding of indigenous peoples and long-term settlers is heterogeneous and continually in
flux as they adapt to ecological, political and economic changes. This research focuses on Khumbu Sherpa ecological knowledge
and its relation to environmental decision-making. The Sherpa, Tibetan Buddhists who practice agro-pastoralism, provide tourism
services to visitors of Sagarmatha (Mount Everest) National Park and Buffer Zone. Utilizing mixed quantitative and qualitative
methods, I selected a stratified random sample of 100 individuals to assess spiritual values, and species and landscape knowledge.
The results generally showed that individuals who lived on the tourist route and younger generations had less knowledge of
these domains. These findings suggest that some Sherpa ecological knowledge and understanding had shifted from spiritual and
agro-pastoralist socioeconomic values to a more tourism-centered economic logic. Future environmental decisions may be influenced
by these changes.
KeywordsEcological knowledge and understanding–Heterogeneity–Tourism–Sherpa–Himalayas
Tibetan villagers’ perceptions of climate change and its impacts are very detailed and can give important insights into local concerns and processes of climate change. Perceived climate changes and impacts differed significantly even within a small geographic area. Furthermore, climate change was seen as a moral and spiritual issue. These interpretations affect how people deal with climate change and its impacts and which solutions are regarded as relevant. In order to effectively address climate change impacts at the local scale and to enable the process of adaptation, it is necessary to address a combination of perceptions, local variations, moral and spiritual interpretations, and locally relevant solutions.
Beyul Khumbu: Sherpa Constructions of a Sacred Landscape
- Lindsay Skog
- Ann
Conservation Governance and Management of Sagarmatha (Mt. Everest) National Park, Buffer Zone, and Buffer Zone Community Forest User Groups in Pharak
- Mingma Sherpa
- Norbu
Tourism in a Sacred Landscape: Political Economy and Sherpa Ecological Knowledge in Beyul Khumbu
- Jeremy Spoon
National Adaptation Programme of Action to Climate Change
- Ministry
- Environment