There may be legends of mythical mountains and rivers that form the axis of the world. But the  Tibetan plateau itself, with its mountains, glaciers and rivers, and as the engine that drives the monsoon, lays fair claim to being the real axis of the world.  

 

Apart from feeding the rivers in India and Pakistan, Tibet's glaciers are the source of even more great rivers. Vietnam's Mekong, Burma's Salween and the Yangtze and the Yellow, both of which flow into China. Each year, enough water flows from the Tibetan plateau to fill the entire Yellow River, the mother river of Chinese civilization. Today, in China alone, 300 million people depend on water from the Tibetan plateau. 

 

With its profound effect on Asia's weather and water systems, the Tibetan plateau helps to sustain almost half the world's population, for the moment at least. Close to the summit of Mount Everest, a forest of  ice once covered much of the area. But now, thanks to climate change, much of it has gone. Within the next 30 years, it's predicted that 80% of the Tibetan glaciers could disappear. In many ways, Tibet's fragile environment is the barometer of our world. What happens to it today, in time will affect us all.