For centuries, writers, painters and photographers have been drawn to the wild and seemingly indestructible beauty of glaciers. More practically, they are a vital part of the planet's system for collecting, storing and delivering the fresh water that billions of people depend on for washing, drinking, agriculture and power.
Now these once indomitable monuments are disappearing. And as they retreat, glacial lakes will burst, debris and ice will fall in avalanches, rivers will flood and then dry up, and sea levels will rise even further, say the climate experts. Communities will be deprived of essential water, crops will be ruined and power stations which rely on river flows paralysed.
As a result, people will have to change their lifestyles, their farming, even move their homes, says Achim Steiner, executive director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). He also fears the problem could exacerbate tensions over inadequate supplies between neighbouring states and countries, possibly spilling over into conflict....
Glacier ice loss at record levels - Independent, UK
Glaciers are shrinking at record rates and many could disappear within decades, the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) said yesterday. Scientists measuring 30 glaciers around the world found ice loss reached record levels in 2006, the most recent year for which data are available.
The most severe loss was recorded at Norway's Breidalblikkbrea glacier, which shrank 3.1m (10.2ft). On average, glaciers shrank by 1.5m. "The figures are part of what appears to be an accelerating trend with no apparent end in sight," said Wilfried Haeberli, director of the World Glacier Monitoring Service, which conducted the study...
Melting glaciers bigger cause of rising sea levels than estimated - Livemint, India
Bangalore: Melting ice from Himalyan glaciers and other global ice sheets has contributed more to the rise in the global sea level over the past 80 years than was previously estimated, increasing the need for an effective global emission control regime.
...researchers from the National Central University in Taiwan report that the contribution of ice melt is higher than previously thought because earlier calculations have left out the contribution of water reservoirs that, it turns out, have been responsible for a drop in sea level by 30mm over the past 50 years.
India’s glaciers are melting fast and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the scientific body meant to study climate change, warned in 2007 that if steps were not taken to check this, there was a likelihood of water shortage in rivers (when needed) and flooding of coastal regions...
“The concept is simple,” says the lead researcher from the National Central University of Taiwan team, Benjamin F. Chao. “We know that the global sea level (GSL) has been rising at 1.8mm/year over the past century, accelerating in the last decade. We also know that people have been building reservoirs impounding large quantity of water behind artificial dams, but we don’t quite know how much negative impact these dams have had on GSL rise.”
Report warns of Asian water shortages - UPI
The report said "an increasing shortage of water, which is both a key resource for agriculture and a strategic resource for electricity generation, is already noticeable" in central Asia.
The glaciers in Tajikistan lost a third of their area in the second half of the 20th century, while Kyrgyzstan has lost over a 1,000 glaciers in the last four decades, the report said.
'Glaciers atop great lakes shrinking rapidly' - Independent Online, South Africa
Nairobi - Glacier's atop one of Africa's tallest mountains are melting at an alarming rate and are likely to disappear in the next 30 years, the World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF) said on Monday.
The Rwenzori Mountains, which straddle the border between Uganda and Congo, are one of Africa's three mountains that are capped by a thick layer of ice. But like Tanzania's Mount Kilimanjaro and Mount Kenya further north, Rwenzori's glaciers are also shrinking.
"The impact of melting of glaciers was felt by the team when it discovered that the route leading from Congo to Uganda used a glacier that no longer exists, forcing the team to open a new route," said Marc Languy, head of WWF's Great Lakes region programme.
"However, the impact is more severe on wildlife and the vegetation that can not adapt to the new condition fast enough," he said after an expedition to photograph the glaciers, 5 119 metres above sea level.
The streams that trickle down the mountains provide water to some 2 million people and are the centrepiece of Congo's Virunga National Park, home to the world's few hundred remaining mountain gorillas. Both are listed as United Nations World Heritage Sites....
Global Warming Hits Tropical Glaciers in the Andes - NPR
"Tropical glaciers" may sound like an oxymoron, but these unique ice floes are dotted throughout Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia. The high altitudes of the Andes in South America contain 70 percent of the world's tropical glaciers. Scientists say global warming is quickly destroying these glaciers, including Zongo, near La Paz, Bolivia.
In Pictures: The Shrinking Glaciers of Switzerland - EcoWorldly, San Francisco
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