Accessibility links Skip to main content Keyboard shortcuts for audio player Open Navigation Menu --> Newsletters NPR Shop Get NPR+ Close Navigation Menu Home News Expand/collapse submenu for News National World Politics Business Health Science Climate Race Culture Expand/collapse submenu for Culture Books Movies Television Pop Culture Food Art & Design Performing Arts Life Kit Gaming Music Expand/collapse submenu for Music Tiny Desk New Music Friday All Songs Considered Music Features Live Sessions Podcasts & Shows Expand/collapse submenu for Podcasts & Shows Daily Morning Edition Weekend Edition Saturday Weekend Edition Sunday All Things Considered Up First Here & Now NPR Politics Podcast Featured Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me! Fresh Air Wild Card with Rachel Martin It's Been a Minute Embedded Get NPR+ More Podcasts & Shows Search Newsletters NPR Shop Get NPR+ Tiny Desk New Music Friday All Songs Considered Music Features Live Sessions About NPR Diversity Support Careers Press Ethics A melting glacier contributed to the deadly Nepal floods. We can expect more like this As the climate continues to warm, scientists warn that the frequency of disasters like the floods in Nepal will increase. Climate A melting glacier contributed to the deadly Nepal floods. We can expect more like this Updated August 29, 20268:53 AM ET Originally published August 28, 20265:00 AM ET By
Ava Berger
,
Diaa Hadid
,
Julia Simon
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Nearly 3,000 people are missing and at least 670 people are dead after flash flooding tore through Nepal and Tibet early Wednesday, according to the Associated Press. Initial assessments found that a massive chunk of ice snapped off a glacier and tumbled thousands of feet into the valley below. Rock, ice and mud plunged down for miles, washing away communities along the river.
Beyond the Poles: The far-reaching dangers of melting ice Living in the shadow of a dangerous shrinking glacier Science Why the most climate-resistant glaciers are hiding in plain sight Scientists say glaciers in this region, and around the world, are increasingly unstable because of human-caused global warming. Across the mountains of Nepal and Tibet, climate change is causing glaciers to melt at an alarming rate.
Planet-heating emissions from burning fossil fuels such as oil, gas and coal are the primary driver of climate change. Scientists say that in addition to reducing climate pollution, renewable energy and battery technologies are increasingly price competitive with traditional energy sources.
Damaged houses stand precariously near the swollen, debris-choked banks of the Trishuli River after flash floods in Nepal's Nuwakot district on Wednesday. Niranjan Shrestha/AP hide caption
"There's no question that this event was made more likely because of climate change and that we're seeing more likely other similar glacier hazards occurring," says Twila Moon, deputy lead scientist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center at the University of Colorado Boulder.
Footage from the Chinese-administered Tibet side of the border with Nepal shared on local media showed a massive gush of water sweeping over a port building as people fled.
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As the water barrelled down, residents filmed it sweeping away a bridge and washing away riverside settlements.
The flooding was made more severe because it happened during the heavy rains of the monsoon season, says Mohammad Farooq Azam, an expert at ICIMOD, an environmental advocacy group that focuses on Asia's high mountains. "Everything is fully saturated already," Azam said. "The rivers are swollen."
This flood is part of a trend, said Arun Bhakta Shrestha, an expert on climate change and the Himalayan glaciers.
A boy looks at the devastation caused by flash flooding along the Trishuli River in Nepal's Nuwakot district on Wednesday. Niranjan Shrestha/AP hide caption
"If you look at the whole Hindu Kush Himalayan region," he said, "it seems like the frequency, the types of those hazards are increasing." Shrestha said everything points to climate change as the reason.
The world will see "more and more events like this," says Alton Byers, a faculty research scientist at the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research at the University of Colorado Boulder. "Things are getting warmer," he says.
Permafrost on the mountains, the continuously frozen soil and sediment, is now changing, said Byers. He uses the analogy of a stick of butter left out of the refrigerator. "It's going to get softer," he says. "And it's going to lose its structural integrity."
Europe Melting glaciers mean an uncertain future for Europe's rivers Preliminary reports indicate that Nepal's flood warning system wasn't equipped to handle these floods. That's despite significant government investment in flood warning systems over the last decade in Nepal. Many flood-prone valleys in the country have warning alarms, but as NPR has reported, the government has struggled to keep up with the cost of maintaining the systems.
NPR's Rebecca Hersher contributed to this reporting.
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