The melting of the world’s ‘third pole’ is a looming climate disaster – so why aren’t we taking about it?

The vast Hindu Kush-Himalaya ice sheet contains the world’s largest amount of snow and ice, after the Arctic and Antarctic. Amy Coles explains that without a major reduction in global emissions, it could be a fraction of the size within decades - changing the lives of the hundreds of millions who rely on it

An aerial view of The Hindu Kush mountain range near Badakhshan (AFP via Getty Images)

Ask anyone what’s happening in the North and South pole and they will tell you the ice caps are melting. Probe a little further and they might tell you it’s the result of runaway climate change, and, at some point in the near future, sea levels will rise and low-lying places like Florida and Venice will disappear.

It’s a familiar, if bleak, scenario, well known to most regardless if you follow climate science or not.

But ask the same person about the world’s ‘Third Pole’ and they will likely give you a bemused look, which is frightening because it’s the site of another, perhaps even more urgent, climate emergency, that will likely make life impossible for up to a fifth of the world’s population within our lifetime.