‘The world needs to pay attention’: Nepalis and Tibetans in New York City respond to the Himalayan disaster
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- A Himalayan glacier collapsed Wednesday near the Nepal-Tibet border, sending floods through Rasuwa that destroyed most of the village where Queens College student Geeta Tamang, 24, grew up and wiped out homes of relatives across the region.
- The death toll has surpassed 600 confirmed with nearly 3,000 still missing, including Tamang's grandmother's sister, whom she called 'really like a grandmother to me.'
- Chinese authorities reported at least seven deaths in Tibet, but Sonam Tshiring, a 58-year-old Tibetan refugee who settled in Queens three decades ago, believes the real toll is far higher than Beijing has acknowledged.
- The US State Department pledged an initial $500,000 in emergency aid for Nepal — an amount Tsomo Dasel, owner of Himalayan Yak in Jackson Heights, called an 'insult' against a death toll that is still rising.
- Nepal contributes only a tiny fraction of global greenhouse gas emissions yet faces mounting dangers as temperatures rise and glaciers retreat, sharpening climate-justice concerns voiced across the diaspora.
- Young Nepali Americans including Ninima Rai, 19, and Tashi Sherpa, 16, described feeling torn between two countries in cascading crises, organizing friends in Nepal to collect donations while checking on relatives from New York.
- The disaster arrives as the US has retreated from international climate commitments and slashed foreign aid, leaving vulnerable countries with fewer resources to prepare for and recover from catastrophe.
Why it matters: Nepal contributes negligibly to global emissions yet faces some of the steepest climate costs, and the US pledged just $500,000 in aid — a figure community leaders branded an 'insult' against a death toll still climbing. The crisis crystallizes climate-justice grievances at a moment when the US is simultaneously retreating from international climate commitments and cutting humanitarian assistance, leaving diaspora communities to organize largely on their own.
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