《The Lost Water Tower》- Survival of More Than 2 Billion People

《The Lost Water Tower》- What to Do with the Survival of More Than 2 Billion People?

The Source of Life

The three poles refers to the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, the Arctic, and the Antarctic. Humans cannot survive without water and land. Tibetans living an average altitude of more than 4,000 meters atop the “Roof of the World” understand the preciousness of pure water and soil. 

There are many ancient glaciers on the Tibetan Plateau (Earth’s Third Pole) including Xinjiang. The melted water of the glaciers formed water sources. Water, and land nourish the nature, forming oases on land, sending pulses for urban wildlife corridors, and giving birth to biodiversity, and food crops. Similarly, meltwater from glaciers turns into rivers carrying nutrients, and eventually merges into the sea, nourishing marine life, and let the ocean breathe, oceans exhale oxygen, and absorb the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide to let the glacier cool, glaciers maintain a balance of accumulation, and ablation, stabilizes the planet’s temperatures, enables sustainable water resources.

Safeguard the Last Pure Water on Earth Will Legend and the public jointly build “Cradle of Ecosystem” that belongs to the future of humans, as a seed bank for different organisms and a habitat for them to breed and grow. After all, biodiversity and a balanced ecosystem are the treasures of humans, and the hope for humanity’s future. Will Legend is willing to stand shoulder to shoulder with the public to protect the cleanest regions on Earth. At the same time, we advocate the establishment of “Green Corridor” in different regions, including cities, and work together with the “seeds” of the future to explore and establish a “Green-Blueprint”, build “Glacier-Snow-Ecosystem, Glacier-Snow-Economy” to protect the fragile ecological environment and the Earth. Glaciers Are Not Only Beautiful Natural Scenery, But Also Important Ecological Resources Glacier is magnificent, but it becomes very helpless and vulnerable when it faces the enemy of climate change. Glaciers have a very important function, which is to regulate solid and liquid water (glacier accumulation and glacier ablation). The greenhouse gases and black carbon suspended particles on the surface of ice and snow accelerates the rate of glacier ablation on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. Eventually the lake level may rise, flooding the grasslands and villages. Another situation is that, if the glaciers disappear due to rapid melting, the lakes and oases will also become dry land, and the livestock and local people that depend on it will not be able to continue.

Safeguard the Fragile “Asian Water Tower” The glaciers in Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and the huge glaciers in Xinjiang, such as the Qilian Mountains, Altai Mountains, Tianshan Mountains and Kunlun Mountains form clean glacial water sources. Here is the starting point of the Yellow River and the Yangtze River, the mother rivers of the Chinese, and also the birthplace of 13 rivers in Asia, including the Mekong River, the Indus River, and the Ganges River. There is also the only river in China that flows northward into the Arctic Ocean – the Irtysh River, originating from the Altai Mountains. There are 50,000 square kilometers of lakes, 100,000 square kilometers of glaciers, 300,000 square kilometers of perennial snow, and more than 9 trillion cubic meters of water resources, which involve the survival and development of more than 2 billion people, so it is called the “Asian Water Tower”. According to the traditional Tibetan saying, Mount Gangdise is the “father of all mountains” and Lake Manasarovar (Mapang Yongcuo Lake) is “the source of all waters”, all mountains and waters in the world originate from this place.

Let the Glacier Cool, Let the Earth Cool In August 2021, professor Wang Feiteng, a researcher at the Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, member of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) Global Cryosphere Monitoring Program (GCW) Expert Team and Third Pole Regional Climate Service Center (TPRCC) expert team member, led a team to the Dagu Glacier in Heishui County of Aba Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province to conduct experiments on slowing glacier melting. The energy required for glacier ablation mainly comes from the short-wave radiation of the sun. The absorption of short-wave radiation by glaciers mainly depends on the albedo of the glacier surface. In the two-month experiment, the melting speed of the glacier covered with insulating blankets was significantly slower. Compared with the glacier without any protective measures, the thickness of the melting slowed down to 1 meter.

Cover Glaciers with “Greenhouse Cooling Patch”, Let the Glacier Cool Will Legend advocates the use of green energy as a “Greenhouse Cooling Patch” to cool the Earth. Effectively reduce greenhouse gas emissions through clean energy such as solar power, wind power, and hydropower. At the same time, we support the “Belt and Road Initiative” to promote the green and low-carbon transformation of international energy cooperation, and cooperate with especially developing countries, to carry out solar, wind and hydropower projects to increase the proportion of renewable energy power generation, and help the world reduce carbon emissions faster to achieve carbon peak and carbon neutrality goals, and practice the sustainable development of humans and nature.

As global warming caused by climate change becomes more severe, Will Legend believes that programmes organized and led at the social and community levels can be implemented more effectively. Absorbing the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, adopting green energy to address climate change, and achieve long-term solutions through glacier, land and ocean conservation and education programmes are vital to humans, and ecosystems. The essence behind the various sustainable development activities created by Will Legend is to make the public, and our next generations pay more attention to the “health” of the Earth from the perspective of education and popular science.