Glaciers in Tibet disappear

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Link: http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?newsid=1108910

 

Glaciers in Tibet disappear

PTI

Sunday, July 08, 2007 17:00 IST

 

BEIJING: Scientists studying the effects of global warming in Tibet

have come across some alarming changes in the region -- shrinking

glaciers, frozen earth melting,

grasslands turning yellow and rivers drying up.

 

A group of scientists led by the World Wildlife Fund recently explored

the source of the Yangtze River on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and

reported the findings.

 

" The glaciers at the source of the Yangtze River are shrinking much

faster than we had anticipated, " said Li Yajie, a scientist with the

Nanjing Institute of Geography and Limnology under the Chinese Academy

of Sciences, who visited the area in the 1980s and again in the 1990s.

 

The breathtaking view of Mount Yuzhu and 14 other snowy peaks stuns

passengers travelling along the Qinghai-Tibet railway.

 

But those who enter a typical glacier valley west of Mount Yuzhu will

no longer find any trace of a glacier at the snow line altitude of

about 5,000 meters. In its place, a sliver of spring water bubbles its

way down the flank of the mountain.

 

Scientists found the remnants of the glacier on the far side of the

mountain. " There are four stages in the disappearance of a glacier.

Sadly, this glacier is already in the last stage, " Li was quoted as

saying by Xinhua news agency.

 

The Qinghai-Tibet plateau used to boast of 36,000 glaciers with an

area of 50,000 sq km which feed several rivers in China, South Asia

and Southeast Asia. Major rivers

including the Bhramaputra and Sutlej originate from the Tibet plateau.