According to reports from a press conference held by the government of Tibet Autonomous Region, global warming is forcing the glaciers in the Qinghai-Tibet plateau, at the core of the High Asia into full retreat. The annual volume of water melting is equal to the overall annual runoff of the Huanghe River.

Gao Yang, director of the Meteorological Bureau of Tibet Autonomous Region said that there are 46,000 glaciers across the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, accounting for 40 percent of Asia's mountain glaciers. In recent years, glaciers on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau have been melting constantly, causing rivers that originate in the region to do some major damage.