Tibet, known as the Third Pole because it holds the third largest store of glacial freshwater, is warming twice as fast as the rest of the world. Glacial melt from the plateau is disrupting water supplies, threatening sustainable livelihoods and putting more than one billion downstream peoples at risk. Since occupying Tibet, China's policies have brought region-wide famine, desertification on the grasslands, acute flooding from clear-cutting Tibet's forests, and environmental destruction through unregulated mining. China's solution is to build more dams, which will deny downstream users a stable supply of water. In turn, China blames Tibet's nomads, not its own policies, for threatening China's precious water resources.
