Tibet is the High Ground – 3rd Variation

SUMMARY: The work “Tibet is the High Ground III” proposes an ecologically conceived resolution to the present de-glaciation and subsequent catastrophic outcomes to the 2.5 million square kilometer Tibetan Plateau and the seven major rivers that flow from it through Asia, a bio-cultural approach at the scale of the problem.

PROBLEM SPACE: In thirty to fifty years, the seven major rivers flowing from the Tibetan Plateau, nourishing 1.2 billion people in ten countries, will alternately flood and experience drought due to rapid glacial melt. The negative impact on the ecosystem, and the people there, appears to be profound in the extreme.

SOLUTION: Our initiative proposes nothing less than an ecological redesign for the Tibetan plateau and along the principle rivers. The redesign is to create a forest savanna eco-system whose root systems sequesters and releases the waters that the glaciers once did but no longer can. Moreover, the system will have the added benefit of pulling carbon out of the atmosphere, regenerating top soil, creating the carbon sink that vast forests and savanna can. The restoration of bio-diversity would be a natural outcome as well as pure water, the reduction of floods, and if carefully managed, great economic advantage, none of which of the earlier mentioned alternatives offer.

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