00:00Climate change played a significant role in last month's deadly Himalayan disaster in Nepal,
00:07thinning glaciers and thawing mountain permafrost in ways that likely destabilized the slope before
00:14it collapsed, a report released Thursday by the World Weather Attribution Group says.
00:20The collapse near Nepal's border on China on 26 August triggered a torrent of water,
00:26ice, boulders and sediments that swept through communities along the Trishuli River corridor,
00:33killing more than 1,300 people and leaving over 5,000 missing.
00:39The analysis did not determine whether the collapse would have happened without climate change.
00:45However, researchers concluded that warming intensified several processes that made the
00:50slope less stable over decades. According to the report, warming had pushed the altitude
00:56at which ground remains consistently frozen upward by roughly 100 meters per decade.
01:03The report found glaciers in the region have been losing mass for decades at a rate equivalent
01:08to more than half a meter of thinning each year.
01:13The Langtang-Lirong glacier, located in the region where the disaster occurred last month,
01:19has retreated about a half a kilometer since the 1990s, exposing rock worms covered by ice.
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