Glacier-gate” - has recently been added to the ever growing lists of “gate” scandals which started with Watergate in the 1970s. Glacier-gate refers to the “overhyped and falsified claim by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) that the Himalayan glaciers are melting at an alarmingly accelerating pace”. Claims in the IPCC’s 2007 4th Synthesis Report that the Himalayan glaciers will have largely disappeared by 2035 were solely based on a bizarre source.

Suddenly, Nepal’s claims about the water supply and livelihoods of up to 400 million people being severely impacted by global warming seem hollow and without proper foundation.

We have two choices: we can go on another witch hunt to undermine the integrity of the IPCC and at the same time waste more precious time in addressing this critical issue. Or we can ask how can we ensure this does not happen again.

Research and development, the DNA for continuous growth, has

never received proper attention in Nepal. We have preferred to live in comfort and have someone do the hard research work for us.

Universities and other tertiary

institutions prefer to proliferate

graduates under the paradigm of

“orthodox teaching”, scared to try

anything different as if being asked to venture into enemy waters.

Nonetheless, with proper support and funding, universities are ideally positioned to lead research and create innovative ideas that can add value to the nation as a whole. Unlike (I)NGOs, universities can undertake research in a manner that is less constrained by time, vested interests, and politics.

On critical issues such as climate change, the Nepali Government should start treating universities as “advisors” and start outsourcing the nation’s primary research requirements to the tertiary sector.

However, universities equally need to be proactive in seizing this opportunity and ensuring the necessary changes in the teaching system are made so that students

remain competent and capable

of contributing to emerging national and global challenges.

Universities cannot support governments unless governments support universities. For the good of the

nation, let’s start making these connections today.