Melting Glaciers Show Climate Change Speeding Up
Pastor Dale Morgan
Melting Glaciers Show Climate Change Speeding Up*
Geneva (AFP) Jan 30, 2007
New data released Monday shows that the melting of mountain glaciers
worldwide is accelerating, a clear sign that climate change is also
picking up, the UN environmental agency and scientists said. Thirty
reference glaciers monitored by the Swiss-based World Glacier Monitoring
Service lost about 66 centimetres (two feet) in thickness on average in
2005, the UN Environment Programme said in a statement.
"The new data confirms the trend in accelerated loss during the past two
and a half decades," it added.
The set of glaciers located around the world have thinned by about 10.5
metres (34.6 feet) on average since 1980, according to the data supplied
by the Monitoring Service in Zurich.
They melted on average about 1.6 times faster annually this decade
compared with the 1990s, and about six times faster than in the 1980s.
The glacier surface area is also much smaller than in the 1980s, said
Michael Zemp, a glaciologist at the Monitoring Service.
"The recent increase in the rates of ice loss over reducing glacier
surface areas leaves no doubt about the accelerated change in climatic
conditions," Zemp added.
UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner said: "The findings confirm the
science of human-induced climate change."
Steiner said the data from glaciers provided "confirmation that will be
further underlined when the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
unveil their next report on February 2."
The world's top climate experts began a four-day meeting of the UN panel
on Monday in Paris, where they are set to launch a long-awaited update
about the scientific evidence for global warming later this week.
The melting of the mountain ice floes is expected to show up in 2006
data because it was one of the warmest years in many parts of the world,
UNEP said.
"These findings should strengthen the resolve of governments to act now
to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and put in place the medium to longer
term strategies necessary to avert dangerous climate change," Steiner said.
The UN's environmental chief underlined the importance of glaciers for
human life in many regions.
"Glaciers across the globe are important sources of water for many
rivers -- rivers upon which people depend for drinking water,
agriculture and industrial purposes," he said.
The preliminary 2005 data was based on readings from 30 of the 80
monitored glaciers, which have had continuous measurements since the 1980s.
The average annual ice loss since 2000, repeated in 2005, was about 0.6
metres of water equivalent, a scientific measurement used by
glaciologists. On average, one metre water equivalent corresponds to ice
about 1.1 metres thick, according to the statement.
Source: Agence France-Presse