Meltdown: The Impact of Climate Change on the Tibetan Plateau (with live video webcast)

Asia Society presents a one-day conference on the impact of rising global temperature on the Tibetan plateau.

Most of Asia's major rivers find their source on the Tibetan plateau. However as the global temperature rises, Tibet’s glaciers are melting and grassland permafrost is thawing at an alarming rate.

Featuring keynote speaker IPCC Chairman Rajendra Pachauri, distinguished glaciologists Lonnie Thompson and Yao Tandong, environmental experts from China, the UK, the US, Australia, and the Tibetan Autonomous Region, as well as mountaineer and filmmaker David Breashears, this symposium will look at the effects of these changes on the millions living downstream in China and Southeast Asia who are dependent on the waters of such rivers as the Yangtse, the Yellow River, the Mekong, the Salween, the Irrawaddy, the Indus, and the Brahmaputra for their water supply.

Free admission; advance registration required. Call the Asia Society Box Office at 212-517-ASIA or visit https://tickets.asiasociety.org to register.

8:00 am
Registration and Coffee

8:45 am
Welcome

9:00 am
Tibet on Film

- Michael Zhao, Center on US-China Relations
- David Breashears, Arcturus Pictures

9:45 am
Himalayan Meltdown

- Lonnie Thompson, School of Earth Sciences, Ohio State University
- Yao Tandon, Chinese Academy of Sciences

11:15 am
Plateau Survival

- Emily Yeh, University of Colorado, Boulder
- Daniel Miller, US Agency for International Development, New Delhi
- Yonten Nyima, University of Colorado, Boulder
- Julia Klein, Colorado State University

12:45 - 1:30 pm
Break

1:30 pm
Afternoon Welcome

1:45 pm
A Region at Risk

- Saleemul Huq, Climate Change Group, International Institute for Environment and Development

- Katherine Morton, Department of International Relations, Australian National University

- Lara Hansen, WWF Global Climate Change Program

3:00 pm
Organizer Remarks

- Robert Barnett, Modern Tibetan Studies, Columbia University
- Elizabeth Economy, Council on Foreign Relations
- Isabel Hilton, chinadialogue
- Orville Schell, Asia Society Center on US-China Relations

4:00 pm
Afternoon Keynote Address

- Rajendra Pachauri, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and Nobel Laureate

5:00 pm
Closing Reception

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Co-sponsors of the symposium:

Asia Society Center on US-China Relations; Chinadialogue; Council on Foreign Relations; and The Modern Tibetan Studies Program, Columbia University.

Thank you to the Arthur Ross Foundation, Rita Hauser, and the Henry Luce Foundation for their support.