Fed Scientist on Nepal/Tibet floods: ‘Catastrophic glacial outburst floods are not new’ – ‘Spare me the climate-change grift every time a natural disaster strikes’
Dr. Matthew M. Wielicki – Director – United States Global Change Research Program
I’ve spent many weeks doing fieldwork in Tibet, sitting above these enormous, deeply incised Himalayan river systems and seeing firsthand just how geologically active this landscape is.
So spare me the climate-change grift every time a natural disaster strikes.
Catastrophic… pic.twitter.com/I08oXu5jmy
— Dr. Matthew M. Wielicki (@MatthewWielicki) August 27, 2026
What ever happened to reporting the news?
CNN gets just about everything wrong about the Tibet disaster in an effort to explain that climate change caused the event
This is so bad https://t.co/iUd9hRzTfk
— The Honest Broker (@RogerPielkeJr) August 26, 2026
Media links ‘climate change’ to Nepal/Tibet natural disaster:
UK Guardian features ‘International Climate Policy & Just Transition Specialist’ claiming: ‘Nepal-Tibet flood: this is the cost of not acting in the face of the climate crisis’ – Declares floods result of ‘global heating caused by wealthy states’
Excerpt: Nepalis and Tibetans must not pay the price – with their lives, livelihoods and money meant for education and health – for global heating caused by wealthy states – Sunil Acharya is an international climate policy and just transition specialist based in Kathmandu, Nepal
As a Nepali citizen working on international climate policy for more than a decade, it is difficult to look at the harrowing images coming out of the catastrophic flash flood that thundered down valleys in Nepal, sweeping down the Lhende Khola, Bhotekoshi and Trishuli rivers, and not feel angry.
Not just because of the destruction, but because it comes after years of warnings from scientists and civil society that a rapidly warming planet would make disasters more frequent, more intense and harder to predict. This is what the cost of delaying global climate action looks like.
On 26 August, a wall of ice, water, rock and mud tore through communities, destroying homes, markets, bridges, roads and hydropower infrastructure in Nepal and Tibet. Hundreds of people were killed and many more remain missing.
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Nepal‑Tibet disaster linked to climate change – a glaciologist explains – Jonathan Bamber, a professor of glaciology at the University of Bristol: Excerpt: It should come as no surprise that in a warming world, ice melts faster. Since the start of the industrial revolution, typically taken to be 1850, the world has warmed by 1.4°C.Progress has been made in reducing our dependency on carbon-intensive fossil fuels, but emissions are still increasing. One definition of an emergency is an existential threat that requires immediate action. Not enough has been done to tackle this yet, despite the encouraging words from many governments and states.
We have the know-how and technology to address the climate crisis. What is lacking is the political will and vision. If this is not forthcoming, melting glaciers are just one aspect of this human-made climate crisis, and the consequences will be devastating.
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Scientists say glaciers in this region, and around the world, are increasingly unstable because of human-caused global warming. Across the mountains of Nepal and Tibet, climate change is causing glaciers to melt at an alarming rate.
Planet-heating emissions from burning fossil fuels such as oil, gas and coal are the primary driver of climate change. …
“There’s no question that this event was made more likely because of climate change and that we’re seeing more likely other similar glacier hazards occurring,” says Twila Moon, deputy lead scientist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center at the University of Colorado Boulder.
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