Byline: Dayshaun Powe
At 8:37 a.m. Wednesday, Aug. 6, 2026 many residents near the Nepal-Tibet border felt a rumble in the ground. At the moment, many chalked it up to a random earthquake, with the U.S. Geological Survey’s automatic system initially registering it as one. But only a few minutes later, a large mass of ice, mud and other debris started barreling down the nearby mountain to the Nepalese village of Betrawati. What followed was a catastrophic event that many scientists say could become the norm if countries continue to ignore climate change.
Two weeks later, the effects of the landslide are still hitting the nation. The current estimated fatality count surpasses one thousand and the missing persons reports exceed five thousand. Many parts of the region are either unrecognizable, or in some cases are no longer there.
In response to this, Nepal called an international plea for other nations to help the recovery effort. Nepalese Prime Minister Balendra Shah stated that the matter of not only recovery from the current landslide, but prevention of future catastrophes, should be a “global effort.”
According to the Prime Minister of Nepal, Nepal has always been in an area where it has been strongly affected by global warming, as it has strongly suffered from the region’s temperature rising at a concerning rate. The inciting incident for the landslide was a falling piece of glacier on a nearby mountain.
Many say that this is only a warning for the future, as the ice loss rates in the region have doubled since the year 2000 according to the International Center for Integrated Mountain Developement. Largely due to this, Nepal has come out of this tragedy with a very strong stance on global warming. Even directly addressing larger nations, like its twin countries of China and India, warning them that they need to “wake up” to the situation.
Only a few weeks after the flooding disaster in Nepal, following a long day of nonstop storming Aug. 26, 2026, different regions of the Grand Canyon started to flood. Flooding at the Grand Canyon has been recorded to happen a few times a year, but what made this specific incident concerning was the locations of flooding at Phantom Ranch and Bright Angel Canyon, both of which are tourist-filled areas.
As of Sep. 16, two fatalities and additional unidentified human remains have been confirmed as well as more than ten missing person reports.
Aside from the fact that both incidents involve floods, another similarity between both of these instances is that many consider them as warnings for the kind of disasters that global warming can lead to. Nepal’s constantly rising temperature in the summer season directly led to the melted glacier that caused regional flooding.
According to the National Park Service, the most recent wildfire in the Grand Canyon left damage that flowed water into highly populated areas . As these events grow in frequency and intensity many people are being forced to confront how devastating the consequences of climate change can truly be.
In the case of Nepal, it is causing national leaders to hold each other accountable.
In an interview on the country’s recovery efforts, when asked about how we can help lessen global warming’s effects, Shah said, “It is not just about shifting the blame to one or the other country, it’s about us all working together.”