Scientists found warming thinned glaciers and thawed frozen ground above the slope that fell in Nepal last month, so an international registry changed the heading on a form.
A study found warming thinned glaciers and thawed frozen ground above the slope that collapsed in Nepal. An international registry responded by reclassifying the Himalayas from a mountain range to an ongoing event. The registry is now out of red ink and treats that as the emergency.
A form in Geneva changed its heading on Monday. The heading used to say "Location". It now says "Incident". Three staff had to be told in person.
The form belongs to the World Slope Registry. The registry keeps a list of every large hillside on Earth and what it is doing. Until Monday, the Himalayas were on the list as a mountain range. They are now on the list as an event.
The change follows a report released last week. Scientists found that human-caused warming thinned the glaciers and thawed the frozen ground above the slope that collapsed in Nepal last month. The collapse sent flooding across the country. The report says warming made the collapse more likely.
The finding
Dr Ines Halloran led the study. She described it in a flat voice, as if reading a bus timetable.
"We looked at the mountain. It was warmer than it used to be. Warm ground holds rocks less well than cold ground. That is the finding."
The frozen ground is called permafrost. Permafrost is soil that stays frozen all year. It is the glue that holds a slope together. The glue has started to melt.
Her team compared the real mountain with a control mountain. A control is the same thing with one factor removed. The removed factor was a century of burning fuel. "We do not have that mountain," Halloran said. "We had to build it inside a computer. The computer mountain stayed up more often."
She was careful with the hedge. "We cannot say the slope would have held without warming. We can say it was more likely to fall. Likely means more often than not. It does not mean anything else."
The response
Officials at the registry read the report on Monday morning. It took about three minutes. Then they called a three-day emergency session about the form.
Rune Aasen speaks for the registry. He explained the problem. "An event has a start date. A mountain does not. We could not file a mountain under incidents. So now it is an incident. It began some time in the nineteenth century and has not finished."
The new category has consequences. Every wall map in the building must be reprinted. Events are printed in red. The registry had three red cartridges. It now has none.
"We have no red ink. This is the worst thing that has happened to the registry in its history."
Aasen said the ink shortage had been escalated to the director. The director had been woken. "He asked if it was about Nepal. We said no, it is about the ink. He got up."
Reaction
Scientists who study slopes were not surprised by the report. Several said they had read it before. "We wrote this one for the Alps," said Dr Tomas Reyes, who was not part of the study. "We wrote it for Pakistan. You change the name of the mountain. The sentences stay the same."
Reyes said the field had reached a strange point. The findings are firm. The response is a filing decision. "Our confidence goes up every year. The number of people who act on it does not. We have plotted both lines. They do not meet."
Halloran was asked what the registry's change would do for the next slope. She thought about it for a while. "It will make the paperwork faster. The mountain does not read the paperwork."
Aasen disagreed. He said the new category would improve speed. "Under the old system, a collapse was a surprise. Under the new system it is an update. Updates are quicker."
What happens next
The registry expects to add more ranges to the event list. Aasen named the Andes and the Alps as candidates. Each will require a session. Each session will require red ink.
The scientists said the way to slow the event was to stop warming the planet. Halloran put it plainly. "Cold ground holds rocks. Keep the ground cold. That is the whole recommendation."
Officials asked whether there was a form for that. There is not. Aasen said one could be drafted, but not this week. "This week we are dealing with the ink."
The registry has ordered three boxes of red cartridges. Delivery is expected on Monday. Aasen said the order was large on purpose. "We expect to need them."
