Mountain Nations Demand COP31 Action: How Colonial Climate Science Excludes Himalayan Realities
Original framing: “Nepal, Bhutan seek COP31 agenda on 1.5°C warming in mountain regions” — bing news
The proposal excludes *Tamang* and *Magar* communities in Nepal, whose *jhum* (shifting cultivation) systems buffer glacial flood risks—yet they are labeled 'illegal' under Bhutan’s forest laws. Women in both nations, who manage 70% of agricultural labor, are absent from climate delegations; their *karkhan* (local seed banks) are never cited in COP reports. The '1.5°C' framing also silences *dalit* (untouchable caste) laborers in Bhutan’s hydropower dams, who face climate-induced displacement without compensation.
The '1.5°C in Mountains' agenda at COP31 is a *double bind*: it centers mountain nations as climate victims while reproducing the same extractive structures that created their vulnerability.
The historical erasure of indigenous knowledge—from Bhutan’s *Lhomon* systems to Nepal’s *Sherpa tenzin*—isn’t an accident but a feature of colonial climate science, which treats mountains as 'data points' rather than sovereign ecologies. The solution lies in *relational decolonization*: coupling scientific precision with spiritual stewardship (e.g., Bhutan’s *tshechu* rituals), historical reparations for water theft (e.g., auditing the 1954 Indo-Nepal Treaty), and corporate accountability for 'greenwashing' offsets. The trickster here isn’t just *Coyote* or *Hermes*—it’s the COP process itself, which offers a seat at the table while demanding mountain nations surrender their climate data to the same firms that profit from their destruction.