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Are the world's glaciers threatened by climate change?

16.02.2012

A surprising finding comes from a study published in Nature, which claims that the world's largest mountain chain, stretching from the Himalayas to Tian Shan on the border of China and Kyrgyzstan, has lost no ice between 2003 and 2010. The study is the first to survey all the world's icecaps and glaciers and is based on satellite data. More information for understanding climate change in the Himalayan region may be found in the three reports recently published by the Kathmandu-based International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD). Despite this finding, the rest of the data presented in the Nature paper show clear evidence that all regions of the world, including Greenland and Antarctica, recorded a significant loss in ice mass over this same period. The general tendency that, globally, glaciers are retreating is confirmed.

Photo (c) blmiers2 / Flickr