Saving what is left of Himalayan rivers. Not all mountain rivers need to be monetised, saving them will save us from climate breakdown.
Kunda Dixit, former editor and publisher of Nepali Times, reviews three books:
- Rivers of the Asian Highlands: From Deep Time to the Climate Crisis by Ruth Gamble, et al.
- Unruly Waters: How Mountain Rivers and Monsoons Have Shaped South Asia’s History by Sunil Amrith
- छालबाटो (Road by the Waves) by environmental journalist Ramesh Bhushal
The thread running through all three books is the need to recognise the ecosystem services that the inhabitants of High Asia provide by protecting our rivers. Not all rivers need to be monetised, conserving rivers and the cultures they retain protects a nation’s natural wealth into the future as the humans of High Asia try to survive climate breakdown.
The highlands will be under even more pressure in the coming decades as people in the plains migrate en masse to higher latitudes or higher altitudes to escape deadly heat and ocean expansion.
