Climate warming is accelerating Himalayan glacier melting: 40% reduction in total surface

A study conducted by the English Journal Scientific Reports and coordinateUniversity of Leeds Indicates that glaciersHimalayas They are melting record speedwith rhythm ten times higher than in the past few centuries. This dissolution led to the reduction of 40% of the area of ​​the 15,000 . glaciers located in the area. Mountain chainHimalayas Represent the third The largest ice reserve in the world, afterSouth Pole (Antarctic) andI want (Arctic), so much so that it is considered “the third poloIts glaciers feed the great rivers of the region, such as Brahmaputra, the times and theEndoalong which they live Hundreds of millions of people.

Analyze Research Evolution Approximately 15,000 large and small glaciers Which inhabits the area: Thanks to satellite images and historical data, researchers have reconstructed its history starting with the so-called Little Ice Age It started about 600 years ago, to this day. As a result, icy surfaces as a whole passed through 28 thousand square kilometers to 19 thousand, with a reduction of about 40 percent, which is equivalent to the estimated lost volume between 390 and 586 cubic kilometers, which is equivalent to all ice Alps, Caucasus and Scandinavia There is enough water to raise the sea level 1.2 mm. “Our data clearly shows that Himalayan glaciers are dispersing at a rate of at least ten times the average rate of the past few centuries,” reveals one of the research coordinators. Jonathan Karvik. He added that this acceleration appeared only in the past few decades and coincides with Climate change man made “.

also in Europe The climate crisis is changing its face in Alps. Born in December 10 Actually a relationship Legambianti and the Italian Committee of Glaciology (CGI) on the melting of glaciers in the most dangerous mountain ranges on the Old Continent. The study shows that between 1850 and the 1975 Glaciers lost in the European Alps half its size; the 25% The remaining amount has been lost Between 1975 and 2000 and 10-15% in the first 5 years of our century.