The Danger of Ignoring Nepal

We are still burying or cremating our dead. We are still searching for our missing people. We are still gasping at the emptiness where our homes stood. And we know something: the furious deluge that came crashing down from a mountain peak in northern Nepal, like a scene from an apocalyptic movie, and tore through the valleys of the Rasuwa and Nuwakot districts of our country was not a freak accident.It was a warning from the Himalayas. Our majestic mountains and their glaciers are warming because of climate change caused by greenhouse gas emissions from industrialized nations that have been burning fossil fuels since the Industrial Revolution. We, in Nepal, produce a mere 0.1% of global greenhouse gas emissions. And it is time for the industrialized nations to take responsibility for it.On Monday, Nepal’s National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority estimated that at least 1,050 people have died in the floods, 292 are injured and 3,916 are missing. More than 90,000 people have been affected. Around 600 of the missing people are foreign nationals from 39 countries.The first reports, which pointed toward an earthquake setting off the glacial rage, were quickly reversed. ...