State of Nepal Post Flash-Floods

On Wednesday, August 26th a Nepalese woman received a call from a friend living upstream from her house. She told her to run. When she looked back everything was gone.

A glacier broke off of Langtang Lirung mountain, located in Nepal's Rasuwa district in the Trishuli River valley, near the Tibet border. The glacier's collapse triggered a massive debris surge, giving communities less than 30 minutes to escape a downpour.Several towns and communities were destroyed, over 1,400 dead, thousands missing, and infrastructure, such as roads, bridges and hydropower plants were destroyed.

As one might guess, this catastrophic collapse was traced back to climate change, which is warming the Himalayas and destabilizing glaciers and permafrost. However, this is not yet conclusive as several scientists say that climate change contributed but is not the direct cause of this collapse.

Over 500 children are suffering the consequences of this natural disaster - now living in shelters, some without any surviving family members. Nepal is one of the most environmentallyconscious countries and one of the least responsible for the carbon emissions driving climate change, yet bears the heaviest cost. Not only are over 500 children in shelters, but over 32,000 children are displaced. 10,000 of whom have had their education disrupted.

We stand here in blissful ignorance, talking about university applications, getting tickets for the Bryce Adams concert, and judging people for illegally fighting for refuge in a place we did nothing to deserve being born into. How dare we continue financing improvements in our own communities, calling what we send countries suffering from our own actions aid. We owe them everything.