While journalists can report freely on grief and anger in Nepal, China’s official media have presented a sanitized disaster aftermath in Tibet.

© Greg Baker/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

After a glacial flood last year, Chinese officials strengthened defenses at a border crossing with Nepal. But last week’s “cascade of hazards” overwhelmed them.

© Cnsphoto, via Reuters

Richer countries might have more resources to deal with catastrophe, but this problem grips the entire planet, however much leaders may want to deny it

Climate breakdown is happening on one Earth, but two different worlds. In one, its impacts increasingly encroach on everyday life; longer periods of discomfort and shorter periods of sharp pain. Endless, hotter summers, and within them sudden wildfires, evacuations, homes burned to cinders in a matter of hours. In another, catastrophe. This summer has been a snapshot of that split-screen. The hottest day on record in parts of Europe, and a wave of water, mud and ice in Nepal that so far has claimed more than 750 lives. Thousands of people are still missing.

The difference is also one of resources. The climate crisis has an economic cost, but some places can absorb it better than others. Responses to this summer of wildfires in Europe included a rapid scrambling by the French government to provide everything from tax breaks for businesses affected by the fires to relocation costs and aid to rebuild homes. The UK government had deployed almost £100m before the summer to strengthen wildfire resilience.

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© Photograph: Prabin Ranabhat/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Prabin Ranabhat/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Prabin Ranabhat/AFP/Getty Images

Scientists are still working out the precise cause of the disaster in Nepal, but one thing seems certain: The risk of such events is increasing.

© Atul Loke for The New York Times

Only a fraction of the over 4,200 missing in Nepal are turning up among the dead, underscoring a bleak reality: The death toll is likely to keep rising for days to come.

For many, the trek to Mount Kailash in Tibet is a once-in-a-lifetime trip to find spiritual awakening.

© Atul Loke for The New York Times

For many, the trek to Mount Kailash on the border of Nepal and Tibet is a once-in-a-lifetime trip to find spiritual awakening.

© Atul Loke for The New York Times

The disclosure offered one of the clearest pictures yet of the disaster on the Chinese side of the border, where authorities have released few details.

© Atul Loke for The New York Times

As rescue efforts entered their fourth day, the scale of destruction came into focus, signaling a daunting recovery for the vulnerable nation.

© Atul Loke for The New York Times

The peak is revered by Hindus, Buddhists, Jains and those belonging to the pre-Buddhist Bon religion.

© Shankar Bhujel/Nexpher Images, via ZUMA Press Wire, via Reuters

Nepali and Chinese authorities warned that a lake created by a deadly landslide could burst open soon. Another deluge would pose the most risk to rescuers, an expert said.

© Atul Loke for The New York Times

Our correspondent Anupreeta Das witnessed the rescue operation following the catastrophic flooding in Nepal and Tibet, in which a torrent of debris and water carried away entire villages in just minutes.

A visit near the border with Tibet laid bare the effects of a swollen river’s furious speed. Miles of devastation were left behind in a flash flood that killed more than 300.

The collapse of part of a mountain created a flash flood of a scale and speed no one had imagined, survivors said. Hundreds died, at least, and many more are missing.

© Atul Loke for The New York Times

Twenty-five miles of roads were erased, stranding a quarter of a million Nepalis and knocking out phone and power lines.

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Scientists and disaster response researchers said Nepal’s early flood warning system relied on a conventional network of river gauges in this remote region.

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New satellite imagery added to scientists’ understanding of the events that precipitated the deadly flooding in Nepal and Tibet.

© European Union/Copernicus Sentinel-2; USGS/Landsat 9

Survivors described the terrifying speed and power of the “boulders, sand and thick sludge” that killed hundreds and wiped out villages on the border between Nepal and Tibet.

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The largest contingent appears to have been pilgrims traveling between Nepal and a sacred site in the Chinese region of Tibet.

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The deadly Himalayan torrent damaged roads and dozens of bridges. The devastation was impeding the search for survivors and relief deliveries, aid groups said.

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Videos of the disaster, which tore through the border area between Tibet and Nepal, have been removed from social media by China’s censors.

© Xinhua, via Associated Press

The region has experienced an economic boom even as natural disasters have repeatedly struck, including a flood that killed more than 160 people on Wednesday.

© Prakash Mathema/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

The region has experienced an economic boom even as natural disasters have repeatedly struck, including a flood that killed more than 160 people on Wednesday.

© Prakash Mathema/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

© Social media, via Reuters

The authorities reported hundreds of people missing and at least 160 people killed in the border region of Nepal and Tibet, where an avalanche of mud, water, ice and rocks smashed down.

© Reuters

An ice avalanche that started high in the Himalayas tumbled thousands of feet, releasing vast amounts of energy that pulverized the ice into a significant volume of floodwater.

© Navesh Chitrakar/Reuters

People in China are way more optimistic about the technology than Americans. We look at what’s behind the difference.

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An avalanche may have caused catastrophic flooding even without heavy rainfall. In the path of the destruction, at least 1,400 people were missing.

© Navesh Chitrakar/Reuters

Many of them were traveling to or from a Himalayan peak that is revered by Hindus as the spiritual home of the god Shiva.

© Niranjan Shrestha/Associated Press

An initial assessment of satellite imagery suggests an “ice avalanche” from a high-altitude glacier sent a giant cascade into the valley below.

© Prakash Mathema/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

A wall of water swept down a Himalayan river valley shared between Nepal and the Chinese territory of Tibet.

A wall of water swept down a Himalayan river valley shared between Nepal and the Chinese territory of Tibet.

© Prakash Mathema/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images