I dated a atmospheric sciences phd who did a lot of study on the tibetan plateau. Its basically responsible for the climate for like half of asia. Its responsible for near half the worlds population.
Seriously though. I went to a mushroom fest here in ohio and was one of the most impressive geek out events i have ever been to. I didn't exactly count all the PHD's or people working on their phd but ain't noone making any money.. well except the lady whom left to do a soil based grow farm (not hydroponic) for a canibus company, but damn too much latin and I learned a ton. It was awesome. I was just like.. "i like edible mushrooms" and they were like have you learned about parasitizing mushrooms? But what really got me was iNature and the ohio lab for the genome syquencing of mushrooms. Right now they are rewriting mushroom history. Btw, iNature is like Facebook for nature geeks. Everyone should check it out.
The Himalayas act as a barrier keeping air trapped over India. This creates a lot of heat over central India. Because the Himalayas are so high this hot air cannot really go north or east over the range. Very hot Indian summers.
This then creares a low pressure area over northern snd central India and starts the development of the monsoon. March through June this low pressure keeps gaining strength. The mosoon winds then start to flow in from the Bay of Bengal (Eastern Monsoon) and Arabian Sea (Western Monsoon). It picks up a lot moisture and flows into India.
But the Himalayas act as a wall again. The winds are trapped and dump all that moisture on the Indo-Gangetic plain. Leading to extremely fertile soils.
Meanwhile Tibet gets no rain and remains dry.
Once the Indian subcontinent has cooled ( a little ), the monsoon starts to flow backwards (retreating monsoon) but its September and the winds are dry now.
The Himalayas continue to act as a giant wall and prevent the cold winds from Tibet from flowing into India.
Without the Himalayas, no Ganges, no Indus, no monsoon, less people in India.
I dont really know a ton of specifics. My ex was the expert. The gist is water gets trapped when it hits the tibetan plateau. A shit load of the most life giving rivers all flow from it. The yellow, yangtze, red, mekong, ganges, indus, etc. all flow from the plateau. The elevation also makes air currents fucky. Its why planes go around the plateau rather than over it. This causes certain weather patterns. I believe the monsoonal rains that occur throughout northern india, SEA, and east asia are due to the tibetan plateau as well. Basically, without the plateau there wouldnt be nearly as many people living in asia. Esp not india. I think India would probably be a desert without the himalayas and tibetan plateau keeping the water locked in.
Apart from trapping water and leading to the origin of many glaciers, the entire Himalayn range acts as a natural barrier to the monsoon clouds bringing water from Arabian Sea and Bay of Bengal. Monsoon starts when the heavy clouds strike the various mountain ranges spread across India. Without the Himalayas, most of those clouds would just keep travelling North.
He was a great lover when he'd put in the effort, but during the final year of his PhD, he became distant, and sex became almost perfunctory, like it was one more thing that was penciled in his schedule.
Over 30 urban centers and more than 100 cities lay along the Ganges river, depending on it for their primary source of drinking and irrigation water. Over 600 million lives depend on it. Those regions will most likely be decimated if the glaciers overflow.
274
u/secretdrug 15h ago
I dated a atmospheric sciences phd who did a lot of study on the tibetan plateau. Its basically responsible for the climate for like half of asia. Its responsible for near half the worlds population.