In 2018 the loud crack rang out from the fog above the Baishui No. 1 Glacier as a stone shard careened down the ice, flying past Chen Yanjun as he operated a GPS device. The glacier has lost 60% of its mass and shrunk 250 m since 1982, according to a 2018 report in the Journal of Geophysical Research.
Millions of people each year are drawn to Baishui’s frosty beauty on the southeastern edge of the Third Pole. As an impact of climate change, the glacier has lost 60 percent of its mass and shrunk 250 meters (820 feet) since 1982, according to the report.
Third Pole glaciers are vital to billions of people from Vietnam to Afghanistan. Asia’s 10 largest rivers — including the Yangtze, Yellow, Mekong, and Ganges — are fed by seasonal melting. It is a region in Central Asia with the world’s third largest store of ice after Antarctica and Greenland that’s roughly the size of Texas and New Mexico combined. Third Pole glaciers are vital to billions of people from Vietnam to Afghanistan.