CHINA:To the Tibetans, China's biggest lake, Lake Qinghai, is a sacred place, revered by the region's holy lamas through the centuries, a shimmering body of water the local people worship on a specially chosen holy day once a year.
But now the lake, located in the remote western province of Qinghai and known in Mongolian language as Koko Nor or "azure blue sea", is feeling the dire effects of global warming, which is rapidly melting the surrounding glaciers at the roof of the world.
Recent surveys on the lake and the surrounding Qinghai-Tibet Plateau have produced some alarming data. Experts are now predicting that if shrinkage continues at the present rate, the lake could be gone in less than two centuries.
Lake-worshipping rituals are held at various sites, including the nearby Shatuo monastery. Hundreds of years ago, Dalai Lama Lobsang Gyatso used to preside over lake-worshipping rituals in the monastery, and now lake-worshipping has become an integral part of folk tradition, all of which could be swept away by rising temperatures.
The saltwater lake is 3,000 metres above sea level. Eastern Mongolians occupy the northern shores and Tibetans occupy the southern shore, and the lake is an important link between Tibetan and Mongolian lamaism.
It is the pearl of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, which makes up nearly one quarter of China's landmass and is the source of many of the biggest rivers in Asia, such as the Yangtze and the Yellow River.
In the past three decades, glaciers on the plateau, the world's youngest, have shrunk by 131.4sq km annually, according to the latest report from the China Geological Survey Bureau.
That means that 13,000sq km of glacier - nearly 28 per cent of the total glacier area - could have melted by 2050 if no protective measures are taken.
Overgrazing has led to desertification. The lake is 360km in circumference and lies at the crossroads of several bird migration routes across Asia. The demands of development have led to overfishing: numbers of the strange fish known as the scaleless naked carp have been devastated and are now just 10 per cent of what they were 40 years ago, according to the Xinhua news agency.
The lake and the area around it have had a tough time. China's first atomic bomb was detonated at a site on its northeastern shores in 1964; there was a torpedo testing station there until the 1980s; while salt and potash mines are scattered around its shores.
In the short term, rapid melting of glaciers on the plateau has led to a surge of water into the lake as melted ice flows in.
"But as the glacier shrinkage accelerates, the plateau's total water storage will decrease rapidly," said Fang Hongbin, a leading Chinese geologist.
"The direct harm is the threat of the loss of the country's fresh water resources. Furthermore, we won't have any shield to protect ourselves from the sand blowing from the plateau if the desertification trend is not checked," said Mr Fang.
The researcher suggested strict controls on the raising of livestock and on mining in the area as ways of protecting the plateau.
Even if the world's global climate does not continue to get warmer, the plateau's glaciers will shrink to 72 per cent of the current area by 2050 and 50 per cent by 2090. The snow line on the edge of the plateau is also retreating drastically.
Over the next 10 years the government has pledged 6.8 billion yuan (€668 billion) to address the lake's environmental problems.
"As the 'thermometer' of the global environment, any slight environmental change in the plateau is a reflection for the globe," said Zhang Hongtao, deputy director of the China Geological Survey.