Community | October 18, 2009 | 5 comments

Kashmir glaciers shrinking at alarming speed

source: http://www.mg.co.za/article/2009-10-13-kashmir-glaciers-shrinking-at-alarming-speed

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JanforGore
Rising winter temperatures are shrinking Himalayan glaciers in Indian Kashmir at "alarming" speeds, threatening water supplies to vast tracts of India and Pakistan, according to a new study.

The Kolahoi glacier, the largest in the region, has shrunk by 2,63 square kilometres in the past three decades to just more than 11 square kilometres, said the study presented at a three-day international workshop on climate change that began on Monday in the Kashmiri summer capital Srinagar.

Himalayan glaciers feed into Asia's nine largest rivers that flow to China, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Burma.

The Kolahoi glacier is shrinking 0,08 square kilometres a year, "which is an alarming speed", said the three-year study led by Shakil Ramsoo, associate professor of geology at Kashmir University.

"Other small Kashmir glaciers are also shrinking and the main reason is that the winter temperature in Kashmir is rising," said the study, citing an increase of 1.1 degrees Celsius over the past 100 years.

The quantity of snowfall in Kashmir, known as the "Switzerland of the East", has clearly fallen in recent decades.

Despite occasional heavy snowfall, the inability of snow to freeze and develop into hard and longer-lasting crystals owing to higher temperatures has resulted in faster meltdown, say experts.

"If you talk about Kashmir and you look at the statistics of climate change, it is melting faster here than any other place in the world," said Sally Dotre, an expert from Cambridge University.

"And that's going to have a dramatic effect in Kashmir and Pakistan, because it is already affecting water levels," Dotre said.

Water levels in almost all the rivers in Indian Kashmir have decreased by two-thirds during the last 40 years
  1. groups:
    Community,   Green,   Current Tonight,   Earth and Science,   3 more
  2. tags:
    Environment,  Climate Change,  Glacier Melt,  Water Scarcity,  2 more
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5 comments // Kashmir glaciers shrinking at alarming speed

  • JanforGore
    • 0
      JanforGore  

    • No one holds a gun to your head to click on the posts. But great example of why this is happening... because of apathy like yours.

    • 2 years ago
  • larrysnotes
  • trut
    • 0
      trut  

    • Maybe after the glaciers melt, the child will jump out of the well and everybody over there will throw a big toga party.

    • 2 years ago
  • JanforGore
    • 0
      JanforGore  

    • You can see for yourself that this is true and real. And as Rahul Ogra stated in this video, we here should be concerned because this is the fate of every mountain system in the world. Just ask the people of California regarding the Sierra Nevada and other glaciers in Washington state and Glacier National Park which is predicted to be gone in as little as five years. Or Europeans about the Alps, or people in South America regarding Chacaltaya which is now gone, and others like Patagonia following. And where will these people go when the glaciers dry up and they have no water?
      And yet, we still have the political partisan neanderthals who have nothing better to do than trash another man who has been correct about this in relaying scientists' warnings to us about what we will face in the future if we do not take care of the present.

      Sad.

    • 2 years ago
  • JanforGore
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