"Yak, reindeer and entire ways of life in the “Third Pole” and Scandinavia face new threats in a warming world."
"Changlin Xu grazes 140 yaks in the mountain pastures of the Tibet Autonomous Region. In previous decades, he could count on losing a quarter of his animals to harsh weather rolling over the jagged peaks of the Himalayas every year. But things have changed. Now, as Xu tells a group of indigenous Sami reindeer herders who have gathered to listen to his story, some years as much as 75 percent of his livestock might die annually. More snow is falling in the winter and spring, but come summer, the rains stay away, he says. As a result, the green open meadows that he and other nomadic herders rely on to feed their woolly yaks, and ultimately their families, are disappearing.
Last winter, Xu was one of three herders who traveled from the Hindu Kush Himalayan region to the city of Tromsø, Norway, 200 miles (320 kilometers) north of the Arctic Circle. The Hindu Kush Himalayas span more than 1.3 million square miles (3.4 million square kilometers) across Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, China and Myanmar, and are home to 240 million people — many of whom, like Xu, lead vulnerable subsistence lifestyles and have never traveled far from their homelands. But this journey was important; the yak herders’ polar pilgrimage was intended to ignite a conversation with Scandinavian reindeer herders who are facing similar challenges. For in a warming world, yak and reindeer herders share a common fate: dying animals, rangeland degradation and youth seeking alternative livelihoods."
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