Study: Asia's glaciers face massive melt from global warming

In a paper published Wednesday in the journal Nature,

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researchers in the Netherlands also examined what would happen if average global temperatures rise beyond 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) by the end of the century. They concluded that almost two-thirds of the ice in Asia's glaciers could vanish, if no effort is made to curb climate change.

"In regions where glacier melt water is an important part of the river flow, the retreating glaciers can become a problem," Philip Kraaijenbrink, a University of Utrecht geographer who led the study, said.

"There are many people living in basins that have their rivers originating in Asia's high mountains, such as the Indus, Ganges and Brahmaputra," Kraaijenbrink said. "In these basins, the river water is used for irrigation of cropland, drinking water and for hydropower dams."

The 1.5-degree target was set at the international climate conference in Paris two years ago, but experts say it would require a massive shift to the world economy.

In total, the researchers compared 110 climate simulations and found that high mountain glaciers in Asia tended to experience greater levels of warming than the global average. All glaciers analyzed already are losing mass except those in the Kunlun Mountains of western China.

Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2017-09-asia-glaciers-massive-global.html#jCp