Yeti habitats under threat from climate change.
Declassified Cold War–era spy satellite film shows that the melting of hundreds of Himalayan glaciers has sped up in recent decades.
An analysis of 650 of the largest glaciers in the mountain range revealed that the total ice mass in 2000 was 87 percent of the 1975 mass. By 2016, the total ice mass had shrunk to only 72 percent of the 1975 total. The data show that the glaciers
are receding twice as fast now as they were at the end of the 20th century, report Joshua Maurer, a glaciologist at Columbia University, and colleagues June 19 in
Science Advances.
The primary cause for that acceleration, the researchers found, was warming: Temperatures in the region have increased by an average 1 degree Celsius from 2000 to 2016.
Meltwater from Himalayan glaciers are a source of freshwater to hundreds of millions of people each year. However, recent studies examining changes in glacier mass from 2000 to 2016 have shown that this
store of freshwater is shrinking, threatening future water security in the region (
SN Online: 5/29/19).
https://www.sciencenews.org/article..._medium=email&utm_campaign=editorspicks062319
The Yeti & human habitats face even worse threats.
Himalayan glaciers providing critical water to nearly two billion people are melting faster than ever before due to climate change, exposing communities to unpredictable and costly disasters, scientists warned Tuesday.
The glaciers disappeared 65 percent faster from 2011 to 2020 compared with the previous decade,
according to a report by the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD).
"As it gets warmer, ice will melt, that was expected, but what is unexpected and very worrying is the speed," lead author Philippus Wester told AFP. "This is going much faster than we thought."
Glaciers in the Hindu Kush Himalaya (HKH) region are a crucial water source for around 240 million people in the mountainous regions, as well as for another 1.65 billion people in the river valleys below,
the report said.
Based on current emissions trajectories, the glaciers could lose up to 80 percent of their current volume by the end of the century, said the Nepal-based ICIMOD, an inter-governmental organization that also includes member countries Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Myanmar, and Pakistan.
The glaciers feed 10 of the world's most important river systems, including the Ganges, Indus, Yellow, Mekong, and Irrawaddy, and directly or indirectly supply billions of people with food, energy, clean air, and income.
Ganges river waterfall at Gangotri glacier. (Gaurav Gupta/Canva Pro)
"With two billion people in Asia reliant on the water that glaciers and snow here hold, the consequences of losing this cryosphere (a frozen zone) are too vast to contemplate," said ICIMOD's deputy chief Izabella Koziell. ...
https://www.sciencealert.com/himalayan-glaciers-are-melting-65-faster-than-just-10-years-ago
