Latest news with #environmentaldevastation
The Independent
6 days ago
- General
- The Independent
An ancient village ran out of water. So it moved and started over again
The slow, deliberate rhythms of life in Samjung, a remote Himalayan village nestled over 13,000 feet above sea level in Nepal's Upper Mustang, have been irrevocably silenced by the relentless march of climate change. For centuries, this Buddhist community thrived, its inhabitants herding yaks and sheep, and harvesting barley beneath sheer ochre cliffs. These towering formations are honeycombed with ancient "sky caves" – 2,000-year-old chambers used for ancestral burials, meditation, and shelter, testament to a deep-rooted heritage. But the lifeblood of Samjung – its water – began to vanish. Year after year, the snow-capped mountains that fed its springs turned brown and barren as snowfall dwindled. Springs and canals dried up entirely, and when rain did come, it arrived in destructive deluges, flooding fields and dissolving the very mud homes that had stood for generations. Faced with an increasingly uninhabitable landscape, families were forced to abandon their ancestral homes, leaving one by one. What remains is a skeletal testament to a community transformed by environmental devastation: crumbling mud homes, cracked terraces, and unkempt shrines, a stark illustration of how climate change can erase centuries of human existence. The Hindu Kush and Himalayan mountain regions — stretching from Afghanistan to Myanmar — hold more ice than anywhere else outside the Arctic and Antarctic. Their glaciers feed major rivers that support 240 million people in the mountains — and 1.65 billion more downstream. Such high-altitude areas are warming faster than lowlands. Glaciers are retreating and permafrost areas are thawing as snowfall becomes scarcer and more erratic, according to the Kathmandu -based International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development or ICMOD. Kunga Gurung is among many in the high Himalayas already living through the irreversible effects of climate change. 'We moved because there was no water. We need water to drink and to farm. But there is none there. Three streams, and all three dried up,' said Gurung, 54. Climate change is quietly reshaping where people can live and work by disrupting farming, water access, and weather patterns, said Neil Adger, a professor of human geography at the University of Exeter. In places like Mustang, that's making life harder, even if people don't always say climate change is why they moved. 'On the everyday basis, the changing weather patterns ... it's actually affecting the ability of people to live in particular places,' Adger said. Around the globe, extreme weather due to climate change is forcing communities to move, whether it's powerful tropical storms in The Philippines and Honduras, drought in Somalia or forest fires in California. In the world's highest mountains, Samjung isn't the only community to have to start over, said Amina Maharjan, a migration specialist at ICMOD. Some villages move only short distances, but inevitably the key driver is lack of water. "The water scarcity is getting chronic,' she said. Retreating glaciers — rivers of ice shrinking back as the world warms — are the most tangible and direct evidence of climate change. Up to 80% of the glacier volume in the Hindu Kush and Himalayas could vanish in this century if greenhouse gas emissions aren't drastically cut, a 2023 report warned. It hasn't snowed in Upper Mustang for nearly three years, a dire blow for those living and farming in high-altitude villages. Snowfall traditionally sets the seasonal calendar, determining when crops of barley, buckwheat, and potatoes are planted and affecting the health of grazing livestock. 'It is critically important," Maharjan said. For Samjung, the drought and mounting losses began around the turn of the century. Traditional mud homes built for a dry, cold mountain climate fell apart as monsoon rains grew more intense — a shift scientists link to climate change. The region's steep slopes and narrow valleys funnel water into flash floods that destroyed homes and farmland, triggering a wave of migration that began a decade ago. Moving a village — even one with fewer than 100 residents like Samjung — was no simple endeavor. They needed reliable access to water and nearby communities for support during disasters. Relocating closer to winding mountain roads would allow villagers to market their crops and benefit from growing tourism. Eventually, the king of Mustang, who still owns large tracts of land in the area nearly two decades after Nepal abolished its monarchy, provided suitable land for a new village. Pemba Gurung, 18, and her sister Toshi Lama Gurung, 22, don't remember much about the move from their old village. But they remember how hard it was to start over. Families spent years gathering materials to build new mud homes with bright tin roofs on the banks of the glacial Kali Gandaki river, nearly 15 kilometers (9 miles) away. They constructed shelters for livestock and canals to bring water to their homes. Only then could they move. Some villagers still herd sheep and yak, but life is a bit different in New Samjung, which is close to Lo Manthang, a medieval walled city cut off from the world until 1992, when foreigners were first allowed to visit. It's a hub for pilgrims and tourists who want to trek in the high mountains and explore its ancient Buddhist culture, so some villagers work in tourism. The sisters Pemba and Toshi are grateful not to have to spend hours fetching water every day. But they miss their old home. 'It is the place of our origin. We wish to go back. But I don't think it will ever be possible,' said Toshi.
The National
16-05-2025
- Politics
- The National
Lebanon Pavilion at Venice Biennale starts petition to ban white phosphorus in warfare
The Lebanon Pavilion at Venice Biennale of Architecture is calling on visitors and the wider creative community to sign a petition to make white phosphorus illegal in weaponry and warfare. The pavilion's exhibition is curated by Collective for Architecture Lebanon and titled The Land Remembers. It seeks to highlight the environmental devastation caused by months of Israeli airstrikes and the use of white phosphorus last year, as well as during previous conflicts and unchecked urbanisation. As visitors wander through the pavilion, they are presented with research, maps, testimonies, and both traditional and experimental techniques that encourage architects to think how to rebuild, whilst prioritising the healing of the land itself. Styled as a fictional ministry of land intelligence and a space for activism, the pavilion eventually asks visitors to sign the petition which, in partnership with environmental Lebanese NGO Green Southerners, is intended to be put to international legal bodies such as the United Nations. Co-curator Elias Tamer tells The National: 'In our pavilion, we clearly show with the maps by Public Works Studio and other documentation that white phosphorus was used a lot on agricultural areas, especially on olive groves, with a clear intention to destroy nature and kill economic activity. "If you're killing the land people have been living off for generations, it becomes much harder to come back to their villages – it's intentional destruction of the environment to achieve military or political objectives. 'Once you come to the pavilion, you see, you learn, and then you take action, which is signing the petition itself. You leave as someone who can help make change,' Tamer says. 'As architects, we're calling for other architects to be activists, because architecture is political." It is estimated that about 300,000 people from around the world will visit the Venice Biennale by the end of November, including ministers and officials, adds Tamer, "so it's a way to create awareness, get the information to a lot of people and help make a difference'. The petition is part of a wider campaign Green Southerners is working on, which includes mapping, gathering documentation, soil analysis samples, toxicology reports, photos and more, to build an evidence-based case. Currently, the use of white phosphorus is restricted, but not illegal. Classified as incendiary weapons under international humanitarian law, it can be used for the purposes of creating smokescreens or marking targets. However, it is illegal to deploy such weaponry upon civilian areas or infrastructure, including agricultural land. Due to the extremely high temperature at which white phosphorus burns, it can start uncontrollable fires. Weapons that use it cause fatal burns, respiratory damage, organ failure and other horrific injuries on the people and animals exposed to it. They also make agricultural land unusable, due to the material's high toxicity. Green Southerners began documenting Israel's violations of these conditions in Lebanon the moment the war broke out, and have to date recorded 238 white phosphorus shells, all used on villages or agricultural land. The Lebanese Ministry of Agriculture estimates about 60,000 olive trees have been burnt to ash as a result of Israeli strikes, which would take 20-30 years to grow again. 'The conditions of when white phosphorus is legal or illegal are somewhat grey, and Israel has always used it within this grey area,' Green Southerners head Hisham Younes says. 'Our case is to firstly have it be classed as a chemical weapon, not an incendiary weapon, because it is highly toxic and has a long-lasting impact on the environment, water sources and people. 'Secondly, we call for it to be banned from use in weaponry or warfare, based on these findings,' he adds. 'We believe this is a humanitarian case, and it is not only related to Gaza or Lebanon, as it has probably been used this way in other conflicts around the world and caused unknown casualties.' The curators hope the petition will create awareness through the international platform in Venice, rallying creative communities worldwide – who have often been part of significant social and political changes – to support the legal battle ahead.
