Mt. Everest Melting

[Fire Fly]

CNN

China: Danger of melting Everest glaciers
Tuesday, May 17, 2005 Posted: 11:04 AM EDT (1504 GMT)


BEIJING, China (Reuters) -- Global warming is shrinking glaciers on the Tibet side of Mount Everest faster than ever, putting world water supplies at risk, Xinhua news agency said on Tuesday.

Chinese scientists researching the world's tallest peak, which China refers to by its Tibetan name, "Qomolangma", had found clear evidence of increasing glacial melting, Xinhua said.

"Global warming has resulted in glaciers melting fast in the Mount Qomolangma area ... threatening the balance of global water resources," it said.

Around 75 percent of the world's fresh water is stored in glacial ice, much of it in mountain areas, allowing for heavy winter rain and snowfall to be released gradually into river networks throughout the summer or dry months.

"The growing melting area means less fresh water reserves for the world in the future," Xinhua said.

The Chinese scientists had found the melting point of one Everest glacier had risen around 50 meters (165 feet) in just two years, more than twice as fast as normal, while a huge, high-altitude ice cliff seen in 2002 had apparently disappeared, it said.

Similar melting has been reported on Nepal's side of the mountain. The United Nations warned in 2002 that more than 40 Himalayan glacial lakes were dangerously close to bursting, endangering thousands of people, because of global warming.

Scientists say global warming could drive the average global temperature up by 1.4-5.8 Celsius (2.5-10.5 Fahrenheit) over the next 100 years, which would cause glaciers to retreat and oceans to rise and swamp low-lying areas around the world.[/url]

[wolveraptor]

How does this affect world water supply? The ice is melting, not dissappearing.

[Chmee]

How does this affect world water supply? The ice is melting, not dissappearing.

They did write it poorly, but this happens here in Washington. Our summer freshwater supply comes mainly from snow-melt in the mountains (Cascade & Olympic ranges). If we have a dry/warm winter, with a small snow-pack, we have to restrict water useage in the summer. We're facing that this summer after a record-breaking low-snow winter. When it rains in January, the shit just runs down into the rivers and out to sea unless it's cold enough.

You can get out of this by building a *lot* of reservoir storage, but that's not cheap.

[Alyeska]

Snow acts as a resevior that slowly releases its water over time. Places that have no ground water supply near the surface commonly see some of their streams and rivers dry up outright as the water feeding into them evaporates. But the bulk of rivers are fed by glacial and water melt and that is what drives them. In Montana it was a shitty winter. Less then half then half the normal moister and half of that was water. Meaning very low snow pack. Low snow pack means rivers go dry eventualy as all the snow melts. Well not entirely dry. Those near the mountains can benefit from ground water supply feeding the rivers and lakes, but this water will not go far and the water levels will drasticaly drop by mid summer for much of the Northwest.

Now consider this with the countries that rely on the Himilaias for water. You loose to much of the glaciers and the summer river supplies will drop. This will hurt China and Vietnam especialy bad.

[wolveraptor]

So ice caps are important in that they prevent possible water sources fromb ecoming water vapor.














STUPID GLOBAL WARMING!