Global warming imperils Himalayan glaciers

BEIJING (Reuters) – Global warming could wipe out large areas of glaciers in the Himalayas and surrounding highlands, threatening livelihoods across much of Asia, climate scientists said in Beijing on Monday.

Rising temperatures fuelled by greenhouse gases from industry and agriculture have already shrunk glaciers on the mountains dividing China and South Asia, experts say.


But one author of a benchmark U.N. report on climate change said more rapid melting could severely disrupt river flows and rainfall patterns across Asia.

“If the rate of temperature rises does not change, glaciers on the Qinghai-Tibet plateau will rapidly shrink, perhaps from 500,000 square kilometres in 1995 to 100,000 square kilometres in 2030,” Wu Shaohong of the Chinese Academy of Sciences told a news conference.

Reuters