A glacier baby is born: Mating glaciers to replace water lost to climate change
CHUNDA, Pakistan – A farmer and a village leader in Pakistan's highlands decided it was time to try to make a glacier baby.
This ancient ritual that calls for mixing chunks of white glaciers, which residents believe are female, and black or brown glaciers (whose color comes from rock debris), which residents believe are male.
Folks believe that combining the chunks will spark the creation of a newborn glacier that will ultimately grow big enough to serve as a water source for farmers.
The ritual faded decades ago as modernity came to Baltistan. But it's getting a second look as human-induced planetary warming upends life here, according to residents, local authorities and scientists at ICIMOD, the chief intergovernmental body that studies climate change in Asia's high mountains.
And it has an unlikely backer: the United Nations, which provides small grants of a few hundred dollars for glacier mating and the help of an engineer who's an expert on Balti traditions.
The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) is looking to help residents of northern Pakistan adapt to climate change – leaning into the area's indigenous culture to find ways to replace the rapidly melting glaciers.
Glacier mating is one of several unconventional strategies they are trying. The water shortages in this Himalayan district are also prompting farmers to adapt a neighboring Indian technique of building frozen water fountains. An engineer is trying to harvest avalanches. Then there's
