On August 26, 2026, massive floods swept through Nepal and Tibet. As of this recording on September 3, over 1,200 people are reported killed and as many as 4,200 are still missing. A landslide reported to be an equivalent 5.2 earthquake hit the Nepal/China border in the Himalayan Mountains as a trigger of the flood. And it appears that the flooding was caused by a massive glacier collapse. So on today’s show, we will explore glacial collapse and their causes. And we will explore whether this disaster should be seen as a warning and signal of future environmental risk of catastrophe. [ dur: 58mins. ]
- Umesh Haritashya is Director of the Sustainability Program and Professor of Earth, Environment and Sustainability at the University of Dayton, Ohio. He is the co-author of “Modeling lake outburst and downstream hazard assessment of the Lower Barun glacial lake, Nepal Himalaya”.
- Mathias Vuille is Distinguished Professor in the Department of Atmospheric and Environmental Sciences, University at Albany, SUNY. He is the co-author of “Rapid decline of snow and ice in the tropical Andes-Impacts, uncertainties and challenges ahead.”
- Bethan Davies is Professor of Glaciology in the Department of Geography at Newcastle University. She is the co-author of “Glacier changes in Langtang Catchment, Central Nepalese Himalaya from the Little Ice Age (∼1815 CE) to 2023 CE.”
This program is produced by Doug Becker, Maria Armoudian, Ankine Aghassian, Anna Lapin and Sudd Dongre.
Environment, Politics and Activism, Science / Technology, Climate Change, Himalaya Mountains, Nepal, China
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