Greeny News

Research shows that

the Himalayas and the surrounding mountains have lost any ice in the last 10 years was greeted with relief and surprise - but scientists warn against hasty conclusions simplistic

rivers and glaciers that descend steep slopes of the Himalayas to help provide water for 1.4 million people living in its shadow. Any interruption of this flow could have serious consequences in a region plagued by political unrest and poverty.

An article in the journal Nature this week revealed that there was no appreciable loss of ice from glaciers in the region over the past decade has been greeted with relief and surprise. The results have also been received with joy by climate change skeptics have long been claims made about the melting of Himalayan glaciers as unfounded and alarmist.

The authors used data obtained between 2003 and 2010 the twin Grace satellites to detect and record small regional changes in the gravitational field of Earth. A decrease in mass of ice resulted in a reduction of the attraction, because in orbit around the planet.

The study was the first attempt ever made use of satellite data to create a detailed image region by region of the world's largest glaciers and ice caps 20 (Civ. Previously, GICs have was largely on track. field with data extrapolated from a handful of sites to offer a conclusion on the state of the ice mass in a larger area of ??160,000 glaciers worldwide, only 120 have never been measured directly in front of the new study - and only 37 had a measure folder older than 30 years a physical terrain and travel restrictions in the Himalayas have been notoriously difficult for scientists to monitor levels. ice the region of sense most of the measures were obtained from low-altitude glaciers are much more vulnerable to climate change.

Professor Jonathan Bamber, director of the Bristol Glaciology Centre, University of Bristol, who wrote an accompanying article in Nature, said: "The most unexpected result [of the study nature] was the loss of negligible mass [area known as] high mountains "of Asia," which is not significantly different from zero. "

But this amazing discovery means that the glaciers in the world, often described as "canaries in the mine" of climate change, are not retreating rapidly due to warmer temperatures, as it was issued Assuming

Bamber said the survey data should not be interpreted to mean that climate change was "in no way exaggerated." He said: "This means there is a much greater uncertainty in the high mountains of Asia that we thought globally considered all observations of the Earth's ice - snow cover permafrost, sea ice Arctic and glaciers are in the same direction. ".

a breakdown of the data is, in fact, show large regional variations and uncertainties in the rate of decline in the largest mass of ice through GIC in the world. While the largest Himalayan region has experienced, on average, without appreciable loss, regions such as Alaska, Greenland and Antarctica have experienced significant declines in ice mass. In total, the world's largest CPG lost between 443-629bn tons of meltwater. Causing sea levels will rise by about 1.5 mm per year on average, the study found, in addition to 2 mm per year caused by the expansion of warming oceans.

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