Global warming liquefying the glaciers of Tibet

The essential online environmental news site, Grist.org reported an article today about glacier melt in Tibet which brings worrying news.

The glaciers on the Tibetan Plateau are the water source for many of Asia’s great rivers. The melting is already being felt in flooding and could eventually cause water shortages and a variety of other troubles.

There is a possibility that 50 to 60 percent of the glaciers on the Tibetan Plateau will disappear in the next 100 years. As long as global warming continues, it is impossible (for us) to prevent the glaciers from melting.

All we can do to slow the melting speed is to take measures against global warming.

Villagers in Miyon, who live near a glacier on Meili Snow Mountain at the plateau’s southern end, see the changes up close. “Fifteen years ago, the tip of the glacier was about 200 meters [656 feet] closer to our village,” says Jashi, a middle-aged Miyon farmer. According to Chinese researchers, the Meili glacier has shrunk by about 66 to 98 feet a year since 1998. Snowfall has decreased and summer rains have increased.

Sources:
Asahi Shimbun
Grist.org