NEWS

Climate Change: Himalayan glaciers melt, threaten water supply to 800 million people

&NewLine;<p>The&nbsp&semi;Himalayan&nbsp&semi;mountain range&comma; home to Mount&NewLine;Everest&comma; holds tens of thousands of&nbsp&semi;glaciers&period; A study has &nbsp&semi;found that&comma; on average&comma; theHimalayan glaciers&nbsp&semi;lost&NewLine;10 inches of ice per year from 1975 to 2000 <&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>However&comma; latest reports from CNN&comma; monitored by OpenLife&comma; indicate that climate change is eating away Himalayan glaciers at a dramatic rate&comma; a new study has revealed&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Spanning&NewLine;2&comma;000 kilometers and harboring some 600 billion tons of ice&comma; Himalayan glaciers&NewLine;supply around 800 million people with water for irrigation&comma; hydropower and&NewLine;drinking&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>But&NewLine;they have been losing almost half a meter of ice each year since the start of&NewLine;this century &&num;8212&semi; double the amount of melting that occurred between 1975 and&NewLine;2000 &&num;8212&semi; according to the Columbia University researchers behind the study&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Recently&comma;&NewLine;the glaciers have lost around 8 billion tons of water a year &&num;8212&semi; the equivalent&NewLine;of 3&period;2 million Olympic-size swimming pools&comma; say the researchers&period; And that could&NewLine;potentially threaten water supplies for hundreds of millions of people across&NewLine;parts of Asia&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;edition&period;cnn&period;com&sol;2019&sol;04&sol;08&sol;world&sol;global-glaciers-sea-levels-study-scn-intl&sol;index&period;html"><&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>As&NewLine;the ice melts it forms large glacial lakes&comma; which are already impacting local&NewLine;communities&comma; according to lead author Joshua Maurer&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;It&NewLine;can collapse and result in these huge outburst floods&period; And these are&NewLine;devastating for downstream communities&comma;&&num;8221&semi; he said&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Short-term&comma;&NewLine;experts predict more of this flooding&comma; but less ice in the glaciers could&NewLine;ultimately lead to drought&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>The&NewLine;researchers reviewed 40 years of satellite observations across India&comma; China&comma;&NewLine;Nepal and Bhutan and found that Himalayan glaciers have been retreating rapidly&NewLine;since 2000 due to an average 1 degree Celsius temperature rise in the region&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;Atmospheric&NewLine;warming appears to really be the dominant driver of ice loss&comma;&&num;8221&semi; he said&comma;&NewLine;adding that Himalayan glaciers may have lost as much as a quarter of their&NewLine;enormous mass over the past four decades&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Jeffrey&NewLine;Kargel&comma; of The Planetary Science Institute&comma; in Arizona said the paper was&NewLine;&&num;8220&semi;an excellent contribution to our rapidly and fabulously growing knowledge&NewLine;of Himalayan glaciation&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>This study&comma; published in the journal Science Advances&comma; is the latest to highlight how rising temperatures present a growing threat to people living in glacial regions&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>A report ublished in April warned that most glaciers in Central Europe&comma; Western Canada and the United States could vanish by second half of this century under current ice loss rates&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Earlier this year a study warned that a third of the ice in the Hindu Kush Himalaya region&comma; home to the world&&num;8217&semi;s highest peaks&comma; Mount Everest and K2&comma; could melt by the end of this century&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;In the short-term&comma; such rapid melt&NewLine;rates will mean summer floods become more frequent as river discharge is&NewLine;increased&comma; but the long-term prospect is one of drought as the glacier reservoir&NewLine;becomes depleted&comma;&&num;8221&semi; Duncan Quincey&comma; a professor at the University of Leeds&NewLine;who specializes in glaciology reveals&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Chris&NewLine;Rapley&comma; professor of climate science at University College London said that ice&NewLine;loss is &&num;8220&semi;already undermining the viability of small communities in the&NewLine;Himalayas as they suffer ever more serious water shortages&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>According&NewLine;to Rapley&comma; water shortages in the Himalayas could trigger mass migration &&num;8212&semi; a&NewLine;&&num;8220&semi;daunting&&num;8221&semi; prospect&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;Better&NewLine;for all of us to accelerate to net zero as a matter of the highest&NewLine;priority&comma;&&num;8221&semi; he said&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Net&NewLine;zero means the amount of greenhouse gases emitted into the atmosphere is no&NewLine;more than the amount taken out&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Joerg&NewLine;Schaefer&comma; co-author of the study and research professor at Columbia&&num;8217&semi;s Earth&NewLine;Observatory&comma; said the only way to slow down the melting is by &&num;8220&semi;cooling the&NewLine;planet&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>He said that target set by the 2015 Paris Agreement to keep global temperatures to well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels&comma; would see continued melting that presented a &&num;8220&semi;pretty devastating scenario for Himalayan glaciers&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;

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