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Warming saps China's glaciers
Source: Xinhua |
February 5, 2009, Thursday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
CHINESE scientists said yesterday that glaciers which serve as water sources on the Qinghai-Tibet plateau are melting at a "worrisome speed" as a result of global warming.
The glaciers have receded 196 square kilometers over nearly the past 40 years, a decline equal to about one-fourth the area of New York City.
Xin Yuanhong, a senior engineer in charge of a three-year field study, said theat glaciers at the headwaters of the Yangtze, China's longest river, cover 1,051 square kilometers, down from 1,247 square kilometers in 1971.
"The reduction means that more than 989 million cubic meters of water melted away," said Xin, whose team surveyed the glaciers between June 2005 and August 2008.
That much water would fill Beijing's largest reservoir.
The team comprised experts from the Qinghai Provincial Geological Research Institute and the Beijing-based China University of Geosciences.
Xin said the data in the team's report will be used by the China Geological Survey Institute under the Ministry of Land and Resources to draft water-preservation policies.
The researchers found that a glacier at Kunlun Mountain fell by 1,500 meters over the past nearly 40 years. The retreat rate is close to that of the Quelccaya Glacier in Peru, the world's largest tropical ice mass.
The eastern side of the glaciers in the Tanggula Mountain Pass experienced the fastest melt rate, with the front portion receding 265 meters annually.
The average annual retreat speed was 7.57 meters compared with the figures for 1970.
Xin attributed the accelerated melting to global warming.
"Melting glacier water will replenish rivers in the short run, but as the resource diminishes, drought will dominate the river reaches in the long term," he said.
Xin explained that the plateau has blocked warm, humid air over the Indian Ocean from flowing over the towering Himalayas and Tanggula Mountain to the Yangtze River reaches. Warmer weather in the lower areas is attracting more livestock herders, adding pressure on the ecosystem.
The glaciers have receded 196 square kilometers over nearly the past 40 years, a decline equal to about one-fourth the area of New York City.
Xin Yuanhong, a senior engineer in charge of a three-year field study, said theat glaciers at the headwaters of the Yangtze, China's longest river, cover 1,051 square kilometers, down from 1,247 square kilometers in 1971.
"The reduction means that more than 989 million cubic meters of water melted away," said Xin, whose team surveyed the glaciers between June 2005 and August 2008.
That much water would fill Beijing's largest reservoir.
The team comprised experts from the Qinghai Provincial Geological Research Institute and the Beijing-based China University of Geosciences.
Xin said the data in the team's report will be used by the China Geological Survey Institute under the Ministry of Land and Resources to draft water-preservation policies.
The researchers found that a glacier at Kunlun Mountain fell by 1,500 meters over the past nearly 40 years. The retreat rate is close to that of the Quelccaya Glacier in Peru, the world's largest tropical ice mass.
The eastern side of the glaciers in the Tanggula Mountain Pass experienced the fastest melt rate, with the front portion receding 265 meters annually.
The average annual retreat speed was 7.57 meters compared with the figures for 1970.
Xin attributed the accelerated melting to global warming.
"Melting glacier water will replenish rivers in the short run, but as the resource diminishes, drought will dominate the river reaches in the long term," he said.
Xin explained that the plateau has blocked warm, humid air over the Indian Ocean from flowing over the towering Himalayas and Tanggula Mountain to the Yangtze River reaches. Warmer weather in the lower areas is attracting more livestock herders, adding pressure on the ecosystem.
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