'No doubt' of climate change role in deadly China-Nepal flood

KATHMANDU, Sept 17: Climate change was a core factor in last month's deadly glacial mountain collapse on the China-Nepal border that killed more than 1,400 people and left at least 6,600 missing, scientists said Thursday.

However, scientists from the World Weather Attribution (WWA) group said, the disaster was not caused by a single extreme weather event, rather a "compound crisis" shaped by long-term warming, glacier retreat, permafrost thaw and geological instability.

"Relentless warming has lifted the altitude of the freezing threshold on the high Himalaya, exposing ice and permafrost deep in the bedrock to higher and longer thaw temperatures, weakening mountain slopes," a WWA report said.

A massive section of rock and glacier broke away from Langtang Lirung mountain on August 26, triggering a huge flood of water, ice and debris that swept downstream, destroying communities and infrastructure.

Report co-author Walter Immerzeel, a mountain hydrologist at Utrecht University, said the region was undergoing "fundamental, irreversible shifts", with glacier retreat and permafrost degradation undermining mountain stability.

"We conclude that this was a geologically vulnerable slope, potentially weakened by the 2015 earthquake, but it was destabilised further by glacier retreat and permafrost fall," Immerzeel told reporters.�"AFP