a short look at some climate related news and projects in Central Asia

Editor’s note: photo was taken amid the drought, Hampstead Heath, London, July 2022.

NEWS

As always, CAREC continues to work for climate issues in Central Asia by participating in international fora. At the moment they are working with representatives on preparing for COP27.

The Third Pole reported on the July glacier collapse filmed by British tourists.

June article from Nature: Climate change is turning more of Central Asia into desert: The rapid expansion will have significant impacts on ecosystems and the people and animals who rely on them.

From Eurasianet: Perspectives | How to bridge Tajikistan’s rural-urban divide on climate change awareness: Rural Tajiks are less aware of climate change. The government must improve education to prepare for the inevitable hardships that will impact them most.

Eurasianet.org also reported on a recent article in Central Asian Survey: Lack of climate-change research in Central Asia raises odds of harsh consequences. Stating that there is ‘One area with abundant data covers rising temperatures and melting glaciers, according to the paper. Still, the NUPI-Cicero study found that researchers tend to view the issue through a limited lens, focusing on problems in the Tien-Shan Mountains while tending to overlook conditions in other ranges, including the Pamir and Karakorum. Water scarcity and irrigation patterns are also receiving adequate academic attention, according to the paper.’ It is important to remember that this study did not include NGOs or local Central Asian initiatives. You can read the original Central Asian Survey article HERE and watch a presentation by one of the authors, Indra Overland HERE.

PROJECTS TO WATCH

Hosted by the Swiss Polar Institute, PAMIR: From Ice to Microorganisms and Humans: Towards an Interdisciplinary Understanding of Climate Change on the Third Pole. ‘…this ambitious scientific undertaking is only possible as a joint collaboration with key local partners with an established presence in the Pamir region, and the programme will enable improved environmental monitoring at a network of mountain catchments spanning the Pamir mountains.’

Quakes Central Asia hosts ongoing research using ‘a wide range of techniques to investigate the earthquake record and to understand the behaviour of faults and fault systems: seismology, GPS, InSAR, remote sensing, earthquake geology, paleoseismoloy, tectonic geomorphology, Quaternary dating, archaeology, and historical sources.’ We’ve highlighted their work before in cooperation with archaeologist Paul Wordsworth. Here is a video of specialist Ramon Arrowsmith discussed ‘Seismotectonics and surface rupture of large intraplate earthquakes: an example from the M7.8 1911 Kebin (Chon Kemin) Earthquake, Northern Tien Shan, Kyrgyzstan’.

Liu Zongchang, Deputy Director of the Conservation Department of Gansu Bingling Temple Conservation Institute discusses the effects of climate change on the conservation of the Bingling Temple complex (inscribed on the UNESCO WH List in 2014). In Chinese with English subtitles.

主講人: 劉宗昌，甘肅炳靈寺文物保護研究所保護研究室副主任，文博館員，碩士研究生，主要研究方向為環境與石窟寺文物保護。

JUST FOR FUN and learning: photography

Open Access book Photographing Central Asia: From the Periphery of the Russian Empire to Global Presence, Edited by: Svetlana Gorshenina, Sergei Abashin, Bruno De Cordier and Tatiana Saburova. Published by DeGruyter.

If you are passing through Leiden, look for the exhibition Silk Road Cities Documented through Vintage Photographs, Prints and Postcards curated by Gabrielle van den BergElena Paskaleva at the University of Leiden. If you aren’t able to make the exhibit, you can download the catalogue (open access) here.

The Guardian newspaper published Kazakhstan at a crossroads – photo essay by Frédéric Noy. ‘Living in Kazakhstan for more than three years, photojournalist Frédéric Noy documented the culture and atmosphere of a turbulent country working to define itself in the shadow of the Soviet Union.’