Third Pole

Question 1

Risky futures

• Notion of the cryosphere from the Greek ‘kryos’ (cold) is used in the natural sciences to refer to areas of the world where water is predominantly in the solid state.
• Concept of Three Poles links the HKH to the North and South Pole as drivers of regional and global weather systems as well as indicators of global processes
• Third Pole in IPY 2007-8 ensured that these icescapes were seen as connected on the global stage

Answer 1

Diemberger & Hovden (2022)

Question 2

On the mountain cryosphere

Focuses on ontological features, geographical dispersion, altitude, interiority, liminality and uncanny temporality.
* Mountain cryosphere - dispersed and diverse with a near global distribution. Proximity to human habitations (13% of population lives in mountainous regions, dependent on mountain cryosphere for water, power and ecological services)
* Ice is not distant/peripheral/marginal, it is entangled with geopolitics and a site of epistemic authority
* Mountains are known in many ways

Answer 2

Inkpen (2022)

Question 3

Comparing recent changes across Arctic and Third Pole

Both are undergoing similar processes of climatic change; what happens in both regions has global environmental implications; what happens in one region impacts the other
* Mass balance studies of glaciers in both areas show that they are responding rapidly to climate change
* The monsoon is impacted by reduction in Arctic sea ice
* Weaker polar jet stream can result in unusual weather patterns

Answer 3

Fernandes et al (2022)

Question 4

The Waters of the Third Pole: Sources of Threat, Sources of Survival

Water in the HKH (rather than ice) is a vital resource and potential crisis driver - the water tower of Asia
* 10 major river systems provide water to 1.3b people
* Region extends over 8 countries
* Susceptible to climate warming, earthquakes, extreme weather and glacial melting (particularly in the NW of Tibetan Plateau)
* Large, fast-growing and rapidly urbanising populations placing heavy demands on water and related envtl resources

HKH in a state of crisis. Water-related threats will increase signficantly in the future.

Answer 4

Edwards et al (2010)

Question 5

Life in the Himalayas: an ecosystem at risk

Answer 5

Pandit (2017)

Question 6

Caring for glaciers in Ladakh

• Social lives of Ladakh are intertwined with glaciers, but many are forced to leave due to lack of opportunities.
• Geopolitics and militarisation have decentred the traditional agro-pastoralist economy
• Elder/young understandings of climate change vs immoral behaviour (human/nature relations)
• Broken bond with the environment
• Ethics of care is being profoundly transformed by regional political developments

Answer 6

Gagné (2018)

Question 7

How dams climb mountains

Resistance to dams in the upper-Brahmaputra River basin draws on pre-national identities and networks that developed before two nation states of China and India controlled the area.
* Example of rich history that predates nation-state system in the region
* HKH perceived as a region with huge economic potential due to hydroelectricity and water flow
* Local communities and IP are not represented at all in ICIMOD and have limited means of resistance
* Great powers exerting oppression on many peoples
* Complex interaction of ecosystems with social systems, political contexts and economic aspirations

Answer 7

Gamble (2019)

Question 8

ICIMOD: a history

• Established in 1981 when Nepal and UNESCO sign an agreement providing the legal basis for ICIMOD as an autonomous international centre
• Formally legitimised in Nepal in 1983
• 8 member countries: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan

Answer 8

ICIMOD (2023)

Question 9

ICIMID: 2030 strategy

Rapidly changing context of HKH due to global warming, biodiversity crisis and air pollution
Sets out 2030 strategy for tackling these issues
A mandate for addressing cross-border issues through prompting collective action? Or does ‘respecting the sovereignty’ of member countries limit true regulatory power?

Answer 9

ICIMOD (2023)

Question 10

HKH institutions

There is an urgent need for transboundary cooperation because envtl issues are not constrained within political boundaries.
* No possibility of suspending sovereignty claims like in Antarctica
* Pre-existing territories and mountain geographies make it difficult to map a cohesive HKH identity

Answer 10

Gyamtsho (2022)

From The Third Pole blog

Question 11

Bangladesh and India: conflict over transboundary river agreements

• Long-standing major issue between Bangladesh and India in the sharing of transboundary rivers
• Joint River Commission, 1972 has only had one success: Ganges river treaty, signed in 1996 and due to expire in 2026
• Initiatives and decisions cannot be implemented unless there is political consensus
• This is difficult to reach because one country will always have an advantage over the other if they are upstream

Answer 11

Rahman (2024)

From The Third Pole blog

Question 12

Affective borderings at the Tibetan border

Geopolitical changes at the northern Nepali borderlands are creating new political subjectivities for Himalayan Indigenous communities and Tibetan refugees.
Kinship is being re-imagined to repurpose and intervene in the Chinese state’s imagination of borders.
Tibetans in exile in the region engage in strategic forms of intimacy with Indigenous communities to negotiate placemaking and political belonging.
* Micro-politics is a valuable scale for investigating the lived experiences of those in HKH and how they navigate changing geopolitical dynamics
* Tension between state imaginaries and longer-term cultural identities (similar to Arctic)
* Multiplicity of perspectives that do not fit easily into ‘great powers’framework - complicating how we think of HKH as ‘the third pole’ - connotations of centrality around which smaller polities revolve
* Just because countries are claiming the Third Pole, this claim is not deterministic

Answer 12

Shrestha (2022)

Similar to Gagné (2018)

Question 13

Risk constellations and the politics of polarity

Constellations that give order to the universe are shifting due to climate change.
Risk is central to the history and contemporary landscape of navigating the poles.
IR polar talk vs complexity of the living world
Arguing against fixed poles - stillness is not the same as stability
Moving away from static frame of polar reference in which claims to authority insist on being validateed by smaller polities.
Rather, we can think of polarities (plural) - culturally rich traditions of relationally navigating risk and livelihoods

Answer 13

Bravo (2022)