A geological disaster that recently struck along the China-Nepal border has once again drawn attention to glaciers.
Glaciers are often seen as "victims" of global warming. But glacier retreat, permafrost degradation and the expansion of glacial lakes, combined with extreme weather and complex geological conditions, may also increase the risks of ice avalanches, glacial lake outbursts, landslides and debris flows.
As monitoring and early warning technologies for extreme weather and climate events continue to advance, can glaciers in remote, high-altitude areas be monitored and warnings issued before disasters occur?
CGTN spoke with two experts about glacial disasters, climate change, monitoring and early warning: Zhang Dongqi, a research scientist at the Chinese Academy of Meteorological Sciences' Institute of Global Change and Polar Meteorology, and Ma Lijuan, a research scientist at the National Climate Center's Division of Climate Change Monitoring and Projection.