Friday June 15, 2007

Everest ice forest melting due to global warming

theoildrum.com -> environment.guardian.co.uk :

One of the world's most spectacular ice formations - the towering serac forest near Mount Everest's base camp - is rapidly shrinking as a result of global warming, Greenpeace said. Before and after photographs released by the environmental group show how the past 40 years of climate change are transforming the Himalayan landscape as ancient glaciers melt and retreat higher up the slopes.

The first photograph, taken in 1968, shows a long valley filled with white seracs, tilting pinnacles of ice as high as 20 metres, that form on Rongbuk glacier on the northern slopes of Everest. In the second photograph, taken this spring, the ice forest has virtually disappeared. The valley is a grey desert of rocks covering the angular surface of the glacier. The remaining seracs are barely visible on the right of the picture, where they have retreated far up the slopes of Mount Guangming.

The implications are enormous. The plateau is referred to as the world's third pole because it contains the biggest fields of ice outside of the Arctic and Antarctic. Its glaciers are the source of Asia's biggest rivers - Yangtze, Yellow, Indus and Ganges - which provide water for more than a quarter of the planet's population. Last month, a report by the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change forecast that if current trends continue, 80% of Himalayan glaciers will be gone in 30 years.

(2007-06-15 13:04:47 SGT) [Env] Permalink

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