Mountaineers and monks symbolically bury glacier melting due to global warming

Dozens of mountaineers and Buddhist monks symbolically buried the Yala glacier in the Nepalese Himalayas on Monday (12), which is disappearing due to global warming.

Located between 5,170 and 5,750 meters above sea level, in the Langtang Valley (north), the Yala Glacier has lost two-thirds of its mass and shrunk by 784 meters since 1974, according to the International Center for Mountain Development (Icimod).

Scientists predict that at the current rate of global temperature rise, the glacier could disappear by 2040, becoming the first in the Himalayas to suffer this fate.

“I have been studying this glacier for 40 years and I have seen it melt with my own eyes,” Sharad Prasad Joshi told AFP. “I fear that future generations will not see it as it was.”

Buddhist monks held a ceremony in his memory on Monday, with two granite plaques.

“This monument serves to recognize that we know what is happening and what needs to be done. Only you know if we have done it,” says the epitaph engraved on the stone.

The words were written by Icelandic writer Andri Snaer Magnason as a glacier melted in his country.

The Himalayas provide drinking water for nearly 2 billion people.

According to the observatory's latest monthly bulletin, April 2025 was the second hottest month ever recorded on the planet, behind only April 2024.

Scientists predict that at this rate of average temperature rise, many glaciers will disappear from the Earth's surface by the end of the century.

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