[Michaelangelica]

In short, aside from the aesthetic loss, which is clear enough in the case of Kilimanjaro's vanishing snow fields, does it really matter that glaciers in the Andes have dwindled by as much as 25 percent in recent decades?

That Glacier National Park in Montana has gone from 150 glaciers a century ago to 35 today?

That, according to researchers at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, Alaska may be losing anywhere from 15 to 31 cubic miles of ice a year?

Vanishing Into Thin Air
by Peter Tyson
Inquiry
Volcano Above the Clouds homepage
Glaciers are shrinking worldwide. Does it matter?
. . .
Nature's reservoirs

Glaciers store 80 percent of the world's freshwater in their ice. People in many countries, including the U.S., depend on meltwater from glaciers and the annual snow pack to supply water for quenching thirsts, irrigating fields, and watering industry. These frozen assets collect snow during the wet times of the year and release it slowly as meltwater during drier times, just when farmers need it most. Slowly is the key word here: we need glaciers to melt, just not as fast as they're now doing.

In arid parts of Central Asia, including some important drainage basins in western China and all of the "'stans," glacial meltwater provides most of the available surface water during certain parts of the year. Two years ago, according to Russian glaciologist Vladimir Mikhalenko, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan almost went to war over glacial melt from the Tien Shan mountains, whose western stretches lie in Kyrgyzstan.

Small potatoes, you think? What if such countries are nuclear armed? "It's not written down anywhere that it's glaciers they're fighting over," geologist Jeffrey Kargel says of India and Pakistan's conflict in glacier-rich Kashmir. "But that's at least a major contributor to it." Kargel, who directs GLIMS, or Global Land Ice Measurements from Space, a consortium of 24 nations that is monitoring the world's glaciers by satellite, says that next to Uzbekistan, Pakistan depends on glacier meltwater perhaps more than any other nation on Earth.

And not just for water but for electricity.

NOVA | Volcano Above the Clouds | Vanishing Into Thin Air | PBS

[Moontanman]

Of course it matters, any change matters to someone but the real question is can we reverse it or even stop it. I say no we can't, we shouldn't spend too much time on stopping and begin to spend time on coping with this problem. We should try to stop the accumulation of greenhouse gasses but coping with the effects will be more important as the problem gets worse.

[Eclipse Now]

OK, this time I'm interested! "Glacier-gate" seems real, and the glaciers in question may not be melting for the next 200 to 300 years! All I can say is "Phew" because that was one of the worst scenarios in global warming!

UN to probe doomsday glacier forecast › News in Science (ABC Science)

[hummingbird]

I dunno why people are surprized about this. Doesn't history talk about how the planet goes through changes that can be so drastic that it took out a vast amount of life before. It's only a matter of when not if in my opinion. I wonder if we are a strong enough species to survive and out live these changes like some have.

[C1ay]

It really doesn't matter if it matters. Judging from the historical climate history of the Earth, glaciers are just temporary remnants of an ice age anyhow...

[Tormod]

Yeah, probably a natural cycle.

But it is still sad for those of us who like to walk up to glaciers and be awed by them.

[coldcreation]

C1ay, on 05 September 2010 - 12:30 AM, said:

It really doesn't matter if it matters. Judging from the historical climate history of the Earth, glaciers are just temporary remnants of an ice age anyhow...

Interesting maps. This one too should be examined. A map of the world as it might appear 250 million years from now

Quote

...the present-day continents slowly converge during the next 250 million years to form another mega-continent: Pangea Ultima.

That should change the climate a few times...


CC