![\"Kieran](\"https:\/\/tibetnature.net\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/11.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nKieran Dodds\/Panos
Hot, dry weather and progressive urbanization are turning grasslands into sand near the headwaters of the Yellow, Yangtze and Mekong rivers.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Tibet also feed Asia\u2019s biggest rivers, which flow to Pakistan, India, Southeast Asia and China, which means extra water could affect billions of people downstream. Amidst the changing climate, Tibet\u2019s population is booming. It is estimated that now the plateau has roughly 9 million people – which is three times the population in 1951. Pollution from human and industrial waste as a result of rapid development is also a serious risk, the report says.<\/p>\n
But the assessment also suggests ways to combat the problems, calling on Chinese and Tibetan government to make conservation and environmental protection top priorities. Meng Deli, Tibet\u2019s vice-chairman says, it will help in the design of \u201cpolicies for mitigating climate change and striking a balance between development and conservation\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Tibetan plateau is getting warmer and wetter,\u201d says Yao Tandong, director of the CAS Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research in Beijing, who led the assessment.<\/p>\n
Tibet\u2019s biggest pollution change however comes from unchecked and poorly regulated mining activities. The assessment found that Tibetan open pit mines produced 100 million metric tons of waste water in 2007 and nearly 20 million metric tons of solid waste in 2009. As a result air, water and soil pollution is particularly very serious, according to the report.<\/p>\n
The Tibetan and Chinese research team hopes its report can influence government policy on conservation and environment protection, Nature noted.\u00a0The findings can help direct \u201cpolicies for mitigating climate change and striking a balance between development and conservation\u201d said Meng Deli, vice-chairman of Tibet\u2019s regional government.<\/p>\n
\u201cTibet will be a test case of how seriously China takes ecological protection,\u201d says Yao. \u201cSafeguarding the plateau environment is crucial not only for sustainable development of the region, but also to social stability and international relations.\u201d<\/p>\n
Source: www.nature.com\/www.ibtimes.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
An assessment was conducted earlier this month, which supplies new data about the rise in climate change effects and pollution in Tibet. According to research, the average temperature has soared by 0.4 Degree Celsius per…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-931","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tibetnature.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/931","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tibetnature.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tibetnature.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tibetnature.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tibetnature.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=931"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/tibetnature.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/931\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":936,"href":"https:\/\/tibetnature.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/931\/revisions\/936"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tibetnature.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=931"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tibetnature.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=931"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tibetnature.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=931"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}