.Experts warn glaciers in Indian Kashmir melting
SRINAGAR, India (AP) - Indian Kashmir's glaciers are melting fast because of rising temperatures, threatening the water supply of millions of people in the Himalayan region, a new study by Indian scientists says.
The study by Kashmir University's geology and geophysics department blamed the effect on climate change, and said it endangered the livelihoods of two-thirds of the region's nearly 10 million people engaged in agriculture, horticulture, livestock rearing and forestry.
The Kolahoi glacier, the biggest in the Indian portion of divided Kashmir, has shrunk to about 4.44 square miles (11.5 square kilometers) from about five square miles (13 square kilometers) in the past 40 years, the study found.
Shakil Romshoo, an associate professor in the department who led to three-year study, described the rate of melting as "alarming." He said Tuesday that Kolahoi had shrunk by 18 percent, and over the same period, other glaciers in the region had shrunk by 16 percent.
The Kolahoi feeds Kashmir's lifeline Jhelum River, which is also vital for agriculture in Pakistan's most populous province of Punjab.
The study was released Monday at a workshop on the impact of shrinking glaciers held in Srinagar, the capital of Indian Kashmir.
Last year, international charity ActionAid also warned that the glaciers in most areas of Kashmir have shrunk. The group said that climate change was affecting rain and snowfall patterns, which was lowering food production.
Prof. Syeed Iqbal Hasnain, head glaciologist at New Delhi-based the Energy and Resources Institute, said the findings show again that "warming of the climate system was unequivocal."
Rajeev Upadhay, an Indian geologist who has studied glaciers since 1995, said the new study was in line with previous ones.
"The study confirms the general trend that about 90 percent of all Himalayan glaciers are receding. Some glaciers are receding at an alarming rate of 44-45 meters (yards) per year," said Upadhay, who was not involved in the Kashmir University study.
He also said the Siachen glacier, where rival Indian and Pakistani troops have been entrenched for 25 years, has melted to half its earlier size.
"The unusual climate change clubbed with other activities at the Siachen Glacier has reduced it to 46 miles (74 kilometers) from 93 miles (150 kilometers) in length," he said.
The Siachen Glacier is often dubbed the world's highest battlefield. The nuclear-armed South Asian nations have competing territorial claims to Siachen and troops have been locked in a standoff there at an altitude of up to 20,000 feet (6,100-meter) since 1984.
India and Pakistani have fought two wars over control of Kashmir since 1947 after they won independence from Britain. Both claim the divided territory in its entirety.
MyWay
The study by Kashmir University's geology and geophysics department blamed the effect on climate change, and said it endangered the livelihoods of two-thirds of the region's nearly 10 million people engaged in agriculture, horticulture, livestock rearing and forestry.
The Kolahoi glacier, the biggest in the Indian portion of divided Kashmir, has shrunk to about 4.44 square miles (11.5 square kilometers) from about five square miles (13 square kilometers) in the past 40 years, the study found.
Shakil Romshoo, an associate professor in the department who led to three-year study, described the rate of melting as "alarming." He said Tuesday that Kolahoi had shrunk by 18 percent, and over the same period, other glaciers in the region had shrunk by 16 percent.
The Kolahoi feeds Kashmir's lifeline Jhelum River, which is also vital for agriculture in Pakistan's most populous province of Punjab.
The study was released Monday at a workshop on the impact of shrinking glaciers held in Srinagar, the capital of Indian Kashmir.
Last year, international charity ActionAid also warned that the glaciers in most areas of Kashmir have shrunk. The group said that climate change was affecting rain and snowfall patterns, which was lowering food production.
Prof. Syeed Iqbal Hasnain, head glaciologist at New Delhi-based the Energy and Resources Institute, said the findings show again that "warming of the climate system was unequivocal."
Rajeev Upadhay, an Indian geologist who has studied glaciers since 1995, said the new study was in line with previous ones.
"The study confirms the general trend that about 90 percent of all Himalayan glaciers are receding. Some glaciers are receding at an alarming rate of 44-45 meters (yards) per year," said Upadhay, who was not involved in the Kashmir University study.
He also said the Siachen glacier, where rival Indian and Pakistani troops have been entrenched for 25 years, has melted to half its earlier size.
"The unusual climate change clubbed with other activities at the Siachen Glacier has reduced it to 46 miles (74 kilometers) from 93 miles (150 kilometers) in length," he said.
The Siachen Glacier is often dubbed the world's highest battlefield. The nuclear-armed South Asian nations have competing territorial claims to Siachen and troops have been locked in a standoff there at an altitude of up to 20,000 feet (6,100-meter) since 1984.
India and Pakistani have fought two wars over control of Kashmir since 1947 after they won independence from Britain. Both claim the divided territory in its entirety.
MyWay
posted by madtom at 3:54 PM
5 Comments:
AS Copenhagen approaches there will be lots of these bullshit ridden reports of climactic doom. Like this gem from your selected article.
"warming of the climate system was unequivocal'
That is proven to be bullshit. On the other hand...
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1220052/Austria-sees-earliest-snow-history-America-sees-lowest-temperatures-50-years-So-did-global-warming-go.html?ITO=1490#
and
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/10/13/ED7O1A4IQU.DTL&type=printable
Well you do know that it's not unusual for there to be conflicting data point in any large complicated study. It doesn't prove anything that we have snow early somewhere or cold somewhere.
Take here in south Florida it's been so hot, hottest fall in my memory, and this summer was very moderate, it mostly rained, so we had a cool summer. Does it prove anything, no, there just data points.
Now receding glaciers are sort of different. They have been on the move for some 20 years now, worldwide. I think my glacier story trumps your snow stories 10 to 1. Just look up all the Peruvian mummies and Siberian mammoths that have popped out of the glaciers, and permafrost in the last twenty years. You could write a book.
Florida must be sufferring the aftereffects of all those super hurricanes they have been warning about for the last couple of decades.
The FACT is that the globe has been cooling over the last 10 years. Even Al Gore can't avoid that fact. And all the studies that resulted in the entire Global Warming cult--- the famed 'Hockey Stick' have been proven to be liars who cherry picked data based on temperature figures that didn't take into account the changes in the immediate environment around those recording stations over the last 100 years and the supporting tree ring study is proven to be completely fraudulent. As for glaciers shrinking, that's been going on for a lot longer than 20 years. More like 60,000 when the last Ice Age ended. The reports of massive and 'unprecedented' melting is exaggerated bullshit, for the most part. Like the disappearing arctic and antarctic ice, it's mostly fraudulent science on par with the Creationists. Above all, no one has any credible evidence that man is the source of any of these effects, yet, we propose to radically change all of human society based on what amounts to dogma promoted by a cult. When a movement's leaders refuse to openly debate what they declare to be 'settled science', you need to have a Monkey Trial to put them in their place.
But if you like wild unsubstantiated rumor:
http://www.antimullah.com/
Claiming Khameni is dead..
"Above all, no one has any credible evidence that man is the source of any of these effects"
But the evidence is there and has been there, from the aborigines arrival in Australia, to the more recent effects of the South American Indians on the environment. I think we could reasonably debate the extent or long term effects, but to just brush it all under the rug of fraud, is in itself a fraud.
I heard the news about Khameni, I think last night, but who cares...I'm more worried about al Sistani
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