Fwd: Daily Grist: World's glaciers melting rapidly

March 17, 2008

>It's a Glac-Sure Thing

>World's glaciers melting rapidly, report says

>The world's glaciers are melting quite rapidly and will likely cause all

>sorts of environmental problems, according to data from the World Glacier

>Monitoring Service. The WGMS tracks the health of 30 " reference " glaciers

>throughout the world and has said that their rate of melt has sped up

>significantly in recent years. Between 1980 and 1999, the glaciers shrunk

>an average of 11.8 inches; between 2000 and 2006, they dwindled by 4.9

>feet on average. Wilfried Haeberli, director of WGMS, said that most of

>the world's roughly 160,000 glaciers are receding " at least " as much as

>the reference glaciers, if not more. Rapidly melting glaciers are likely

>to cause avalanches and severe flooding in the short term, and in the long

>term could lead to sea-level rise as well as extreme drought and food

>shortages in many places that depend on them for their water supply.

> " There are many canaries emerging in the climate-change coal mine, " said

>Achim Steiner of the United Nations Environment Program. " The glaciers are

>perhaps among those making the most noise and it is absolutely essential

>that everyone sits up and takes notice. "

>[ email | discuss | + digg | + del.icio.us ]

>sources: Agence France-Presse, The Guardian, The Guardian, Associated Press

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Kraig and Shirley Carroll ... in the woods of SE Kentucky

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