Become a fan of Slashdot on Facebook

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×
China Earth Science

Chinese Glaciers Melting At 'Shocking' Pace, Scientists Say (cnn.com) 73

Posted by msmash from the closer-look dept.
An anonymous reader writes: Glaciers in China's bleak Qilian mountains are disappearing at a shocking rate as global warming brings unpredictable change and raises the prospect of crippling, long-term water shortages, scientists say. The largest glacier in the 800-kilometer (500-mile) mountain chain on the arid northeastern edge of the Tibetan plateau has retreated about 450 meters since the 1950s, when researchers set up China's first monitoring station to study it. The 20-square kilometer glacier, known as Laohugou No. 12, is criss-crossed by rivulets of water down its craggy, grit-blown surface. It has shrunk by about 7% since measurements began, with melting accelerating in recent years, scientists say. Equally alarming is the loss of thickness, with about 13 meters (42 feet) of ice disappearing as temperatures have risen, said Qin Xiang, the director at the monitoring station. "The speed that this glacier has been shrinking is really shocking," Qin told Reuters on a recent visit to the spartan station in a frozen, treeless world, where he and a small team of researchers track the changes. The Tibetan plateau is known as the world's Third Pole for the amount of ice long locked in the high-altitude wilderness. But since the 1950s, average temperatures in the area have risen about 1.5 Celsius, Qin said, and with no sign of an end to warming, the outlook is grim for the 2,684 glaciers in the Qilian range. Across the mountains, glacier retreat was 50% faster in 1990-2010 than it was from 1956 to 1990, data from the China Academy of Sciences shows.
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

Chinese Glaciers Melting At 'Shocking' Pace, Scientists Say More

Chinese Glaciers Melting At 'Shocking' Pace, Scientists Say

Comments Filter:
  • The orange man has been defeated.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by spun ( 1352 )

      Biden's gonna do everything his rich donors tell him to do to stop climate change, don't you worry. His team will play fair, like the Washington Generals. They won't cheat you like those Harlem Globetrotters.

      What?

      Both teams are owned by the same guy?

      Well shit.

  • A parting gift for our fellow bios (Score:4, Insightful)

    by AndyKron ( 937105 ) on Tuesday November 10, 2020 @01:24PM (#60708276)
    I'm satisfied that we've totally fucked up the planet. What's next? Salt it with radioactive particles for the cherry on top?

    • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

      by bobbied ( 2522392 )

      Grab your tinfoil hat man, I think it's blown a bit sideways.

      I'm pretty sure that we haven't yet rendered the planet uninhabitable and are not anywhere near having done so. Yea, we've messed some stuff up and left an indelible mark on this planet, but I seriously doubt that we could, beyond a total thermonuclear war involving every nuclear power on earth, kill off every human being here.

      We may be facing having to reduce our population and dealing with the mess we've made may be hugely expensive, but we w

      • Re:A parting gift for our fellow bios (Score:4, Informative)

        by MightyMartian ( 840721 ) on Tuesday November 10, 2020 @02:02PM (#60708454) Journal

        Glaciers are the source of many river systems, the source of their headwaters. Those rivers are literally the lifeblood of civilization. Sure the planet won't be uninhabitable, but you see rivers disappear and you're going to see the bread baskets relied upon by hundreds of millions of people disappear. You do understand, I trust, that you can't grow grains or raise livestock without water.

        This isn't about the planet becoming uninhabitable, it's about the areas of this planet that have fostered civilization for thousands of years suddenly finding those rivers at risk. We're fucking up the conditions that made civilization possible to begin with. Couple that with shifting rain belts, and then the American Midwest may have its own day of reckoning.

        • But here we are talking about a country that has outperformed the result of the world in making rivers disappear in one place, and appear in a completely different place, and this feat of engineering was cheered on.

          • They still can't make rivers magically keep going when the headwaters dry up. The Three Gorges Dam was a pretty significant, and massively flawed, engineering project.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by XXongo ( 3986865 )

          Glaciers are the source of many river systems, the source of their headwaters. Those rivers are literally the lifeblood of civilization.

          But the rivers won't go away. When the glaciers are neither contracting nor expanding, the rivers are fed by rainfall. The rainfall doesn't care whether there's a glacier there or not. All the glacier does is delay the rain from reaching the rivers during the winter.

          • Plenty of people rely on glacier melt for their water
            https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/himalayas-melting-climate-change/
            https://www.reuters.com/article/us-climatechange-himalayas-idUSKCN1PT157

          • "But the rivers won't go away. When the glaciers are neither contracting nor expanding, the rivers are fed by rainfall. The rainfall doesn't care whether there's a glacier there or not"

            Exactly, instead of waiting 10.000 years in a slow river it floods cities all at once, each time it rains.

          • Glacier fed rivers are more steady and constant. In these cases without the capacity to hold and release water gradually, we will have alternating seasons of flood and drought in these areas. What many fail to recognize is that these changes cause mass migrations and conflict. Climate change is the root cause of violence in Syria.

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by HiThere ( 15173 )

              There *are* answers to that. Dams. They aren't cheap, or without side effects, and they depend upon terrain features that aren't everywhere available, but they *do* work...as long as you keep them well maintained. And you need to build them sized for the eventual need rather than for the current need.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by tragedy ( 27079 )

            But the rivers won't go away. When the glaciers are neither contracting nor expanding, the rivers are fed by rainfall. The rainfall doesn't care whether there's a glacier there or not. All the glacier does is delay the rain from reaching the rivers during the winter.

            It actually sounds like you're saying that the river _will_ go away, but only seasonally.

          • And plenty of regions have due to global warming less rainfall.
            From the point of view of the people living there, the river is going away. As it has no water/not enough water, when they need the water. For example, the last 1000km of the Mekong river.

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by XXongo ( 3986865 )
              And if that were what the original statement had been-- rainfall patterns will be changing--I would have had no problem with it.

              But the original statement was about glaciers vanishing.

        • This. The US will take this seriously when the midwest is a desert. Probably not a minute before. Then itll take a century to correct the issue. But whatever. Fake news. Librl conspiracy. Not my problem. Hashtag Ill be dead. Ive accepted that the species is going to alter the planet. We adapt to it or go extinct. The third option ‘mitigation’ was an optin but that ship sailed and it aint coming back.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by HiThere ( 15173 )

            We've got a short memory. It's only around a century ago that the great plains of the US were called "the dust bowl". We're currently using water at a faster rate than it is accumulating, and drawing down the water table. Any year now we can expect that to bite us. If we don't get salinization of the soil first.

      • Ever heard of positive feedback loops?

        We're already seeing change, I'm pretty sure that unless there is some absolutely massive measures put in place to reverse what we're seeing already, we have totally fucked op the planet in terms of habitability. We're just sitting back and watching it all unfold now.

        Humans as a whole a fucking stupid.

        • Re: (Score:1)

          by rtb61 ( 674572 )

          The events being surprise is the difference between weather and the averages of climate. They are seeing weather events rather than climate events, even though the weather change is driven by climate. So weather driven hot spots generating far more rapid change than predicted by the average of climate models.

          Melting glaciers melt into the sea, raising sea level much faster than predicted, the locals to avoid the most as really, really, really, bad investments, the US East Coast, anything that would be impa

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Tablizer ( 95088 )

      I'm satisfied that we've totally fucked up the planet. What's next?

      I got it, fill it with an annoying virus that keeps people from going out and having a good time.

  • No shit, Sherlock. (Score:3)

    by Qbertino ( 265505 ) <moiraNO@SPAMmodparlor.com> on Tuesday November 10, 2020 @01:38PM (#60708342)

    In case any dimwits haven't noticed yet: *Everything* is melting at a "shocking" pace. ... >>>OMG, if only we could've known! .... Seriously, who still needs scientific studies for this genius discovery??!?

    Glaciers are down to 3 (three) in the Alps and they'll be gone in 5 years or so. I expect land ice to be just about gone in a decade or two. Globally. We're beyond a tipping point and the tipping has just started. Pro tip: Don't buy land in Florida. Or Denmark. Or at similar heights.

    I only hope that the new equilibrium we'll reach in 35 years or so will be good enough for some form of modern civilization to survive. But with the methane clathrate gun getting ready to fire that might be questionable as well.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by HiThere ( 15173 )

      It's not surprising, but it's important that it be documented. It seems like decision makers don't believe anything unless it's happening locally.

      P.S.: This isn't a research report, it's a news report. And it's not the first even in this area. It's one of the reasons for the trouble between India and China...there's this river that both want to claim the water from.

  • I don't mean to fly in the face of all this alarmist rhetoric, but you do understand that this region is VERY dry and unpopulated to start with. That the glaciers are receding is not some huge indicator of some major climate problem that's going to sneak up and kill billions of people. Yea, the climate is changing and it's no surprise that this area would be affected in this way.

    So can we cut the chicken little sky falling act?

    • Re:It's a desert and nobody lives there (Score:5, Informative)

      by idji ( 984038 ) on Tuesday November 10, 2020 @02:12PM (#60708490)
      it's a desert and nobody lives there and those glaciers regulate temperature, humidity and ground water for the surrounding regions and provide water security for probably a billion people.

      • it's a desert and nobody lives there and those glaciers regulate temperature, humidity and ground water for the surrounding regions and provide water security for probably a billion people.

        Their presence influence temperature, humidity, and ground water, certainly. "Regulate" is overstating it. But water security for probably a billion people, absolutely not.

        It only takes a moment's thought to see how that is impossible. Especially in China, with some of the oldest continuously inhabited cities on the planet, the influence of glaciers on the presence of the river is obviously minimal. The rivers those billion people use for water have been there for thousands of years. Importantly, and c

        • So many science trolls on Slashdot who hate the truth. The EPA article I cited pre-dates the Trump administration, nitwit. And includes citations of its own. The truth hurts when you're a religious zealot.

    • a little more research on your part is required as to how many people rely on glacier melt for their water

    • "That the glaciers are receding is not some huge indicator of some major climate problem that's going to sneak up and kill billions of people."

      Yes, if they are thirsty, they can drink Perrier, oops, no, also fed by a glacier.

  • Or would this be completely pointless?
  • At least we were warned.
  • They are going to force the Uighers to make more ice and carry up to the glacier to replenish what was lost. We can't do that here because Republicans will not allow slave labor to be using in order to save the environment.

  • China does everything faster, including melting glaciers! Come on, keep up.

  • The Ice Age is over.

Slashdot Top Deals

Fast, cheap, good: pick two.

Close