Meltwater from Tibetan Glaciers Cause Environmental Problems

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Recommended: Global warming effects on global temperature

There are many who claim and even who swear that Global Warming is a foreboding issue. It may be, it may not be, but that is not the topic of this report. Supporters of Global Warming like to point to the fact that nearly worldwide there seems to be trend in melting glaciers and masses of ice. This is very true, especially in the Tibetan region. Ice glaciers that have been solid for thousands of years are suddenly starting to melt. What is causing this? But of even more concern, what is this causing? There are numerous environmental problems that come from this sudden melting. There are also some deeper areas that are being affected by this phenomena, things such as economic problems arise, political problems, and even survival issues in some cases.
Glaciers are important indicators of climate change. Mountain glaciers melting and the shrinking of the Greenlandic and Antarctic ice sheets, is statistically known as one of the main causes of the current rise in sea-level. Tibet's glaciers are also losing mass clearly. The Tibetan plateau and the bordering mountain ranges, including the Himalayas, the Karakoram, the Pamir and the Qilian make up a vast region known as the Third Pole, home to 100,000 square kilometers of glaciers that supply water to about 1.4 billion people in Asia. Scientists have been using satellite-based laser measurements and other advanced techniques to see this. Over the last decade, research has detected a loss of mass of about 16 gigatons per year in around 80 percent of the Tibetan glaciers. That is a staggering amount. That's more than four times the volume of water in Lake Zurich and around six percent of the total loss in mass of all the glaciers on Earth.
I picked this issue because it is a specific i...

... middle of paper ...

...nd dealt with in a manner that is beneficial to the environment and to all the people of the region.

Works Cited

a) Jane Qiu (17 September 2013), “Tibetan glaciers are shrinking at their summits”, retrieved 2/18/14 from- http://www.nature.com/news/tibetan-glaciers-are-shrinking-at-their-summits-1.13767
b) Ananth Krishnan (October 22, 2011) “Tibetan plateau's glaciers melting rapidly” retrieved 2/18/14 from- http://www.thehindu.com/news/international/tibetan-plateaus-glaciers-melting-rapidly/article2562870.ece
c) World Wide Fund for Nature. (2007, July 22). “Melting Glaciers On The Tibetan Plateau” retrieved 2/18/14 from- http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/07/070720163907.htm
d) University of Zurich. (2014, January 16). “Meltwater from Tibetan glaciers floods pastures” retrieved 2/18/14 from- http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/01/140116085057.htm

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