Thank you for making 2022 a remarkable and fruitful year! This year, we fulfilled some of our longest-standing commitments, consolidated present knowledge on Third Pole with revealing insights, and charted future courses of action to better serve sustainable development in the region. As the year draws to a close, we would like to take the opportunity to highlight three important progresses.

This first is about ice, both old and new. This year, the old ice drilled from Guliya ice cap in 1992 and 2015 over the Third Pole has been deciphered of its 15,000-year-long climate information, confirming that the Guliya ice cap existed before the Holocene. Meanwhile, new ice samples have been obtained from new height, 8848.86m asl. to be exact from Mt. Qomolangma.

The second is about the Asian Water Tower. This year, we reviewed present knowledge on Asian Water Tower change and impact on Nature Reviews Earth & Environment(NREE), highlighting the imbalance of Asian Water Tower. While demand for its water continues to grow, the Asian Water Tower’s frozen assets are melting away, with more liquid water in the northern endorheic basins and less in the southern exorheic basins.

The third is about carbon cycling, the new horizon for Third Pole ecosystem studies. This year we synthesized our understanding of Third Pole ecosystems, and identified assessing the carbon budget of the region as a key issue in informing climate-related policymaking. As part of the effort, an advanced greenhouse gas inversion system GONGGA, sharing the name of a Third Pole mountain, was developed and added to the list of global greenhouse gas assessment systems.

We recognize and appreciate your contribution and support all along, which made all the TPE progresses possible. As the post-COVID world reinvents itself, we are also reinventing TPE to keep up with the tide of change. In the NREE comment “Reflections and future strategies for Third Pole Environment”, our co-chairs have envisioned TPE to play a more active role in facilitating adaptation efforts in the future, a future that we would like to create with you.

Happy Holidays! 

Wish you a fruitful 2023! Click here to download TPE calendar for 2023!

Third Pole Environment (TPE) Program Office