Guardian of the Glaciers

Honored to finally share this labor of love feature story in print and online for The American Scholar. A huge thank you to Sudip Bose, Bob Wilson, Katarzyna Nowak, and Bruce Falconer for helping me bring this to life. And to Shrawan Sharma for trusting me with his story.

In addition to addressing systemic injustice and racism and a global pandemic, climate change remains one of the most pressing issues of our time. And right now, our elected officials at the federal level in the US are moving us backwards. Meanwhile, for the 30 million people in Nepal, and the 1.6 billion people that are dependent on the water resources of the Hindu-Kush Himalayas, the situation is especially dire. Climate change has already affected the alpine regions of the Himalayas in a profound way, causing significant glacier loss, avalanches, rock-falls, and melting of the permafrost. In the foothills, climate change has led to severe flooding, an increase in vector-borne diseases such as dengue fever, more frequent landslides, unpredictable growing seasons, reduced crop yields, and the loss of many natural springs on which people and animals rely. And although precipitation events have become more variable and extreme, the average amount of monthly rainfall in Nepal has decreased by 3.2 percent, most notably during monsoon season. Climate change directly impacts peoples' livelihoods, health, and well-being. There are some innovative solutions in the world to address the climate crisis, but Shrawan’s might be one of the most ambitious I have seen yet.