ABSTRACT
The Hindu Kush, Karakorum, Himalaya and Tibetan Plateau mountain systems hold the largest ice mass outside the Polar Regions (Xu et al. 2009). The region is important as a source of freshwater to more than 1.5 billion people of two major emerging economies: India and China. Together, they contribute to large amounts of black carbon aerosols, released from incomplete combustion, and in process modifying the hydrology and radiative forcing over the entire region. The greenhouse gases and black carbon aerosols driven warming is visible on shrinking glaciers, shifting monsoons, declining crop yields, and unprecedented increase in the degradation of the mountain ecosystem.
