Swedish glaciers in global warming melt off
Pastor Dale Morgan
Swedish glaciers in global warming melt off*
From correspondents in Stockholm
November 09, 2006 03:32am
Article from: Agence France-Presse
SWEDEN'S glaciers were melting at a rate that conforms to global warming
climate models, Swedish researchers said.
“In the past glaciers in the north (of Sweden) showed a pattern that did
not correspond with climate change models (of global warming), they
could even be used as an argument against global warming.
“Now however, data from recent years shows a change which fits climate
change models extremely well,” glaciology professor Per Holmlund at
Stockholm University said.
According to provisional measurements the Tarfala glacier in northern
Sweden melted around one metre in the past year.
“Melting (from Swedish glaciers) has been particularly strong this year”
and similar measurements have been recorded in the past five to six
years, Mr Holmlund said.
In the past six years Scandinavian glaciers had melted at a similar rate
to glaciers in the Alps and North America during the 1980s.
Researchers from Stockholm University have continuously taken readings
from 20 of Sweden's 300 glaciers since 1946. The group takes detailed
recordings from Tarfala glacier in particular, the biggest glacier in
Sweden, measuring three square kilometres.
The final version of the findings is to be reported to the World Glacial
Monitoring Service at the University of Zurich in December.