Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
shrinkage and loss of alpine glaciers is its
impact on local water supplies and hydro-
electric power. The most critical example
of this is the retreating ice on the Tibetan
plateau, which is the largest perennial ice
mass outside Antarctica and Greenland
and is sometimes called the third pole.
Melting ice from more than 45,000 glaciers
in the greater Himalayas furnishes crucial
summer water to much of Asia. When the
monsoons don't operate, this water is criti-
cal. Melting ice from the Tibetan plateau
contributes to all the rivers between (and
including) the Yellow River to the east
and the Indus to the west, including the
Ganges, Brahmaputra, Irrawaddy, Salween,
Mekong, and Yangtze rivers.
By some estimates the water supply for
close to a billion people in India and China
is threatened by the melting third pole, but
no regional cooperation or planning is ap-
parent between the two giants, which in-
stead are locked in border disputes.
In South America, La Paz (Bolivia), Ushua-
ia (Argentina), Quito (Ecuador), and Lima
(Peru) are among the cities that depend
heavily on glaciers for their water supply
and also for hydroelectric power.
Melting glaciers very often have an in-
ternational flavor. The borders between
Italy and Switzerland and between Ar-
gentina and Chile are both partly on top
of melting glaciers. The Siachen Glacier in
the Karakoram Mountains extends across
the boundary between Pakistan and India.
This and other glaciers and their melt water
resources are within the zones disputed by
India and Pakistan. At present, water is-
sues are not paramount, but the potential
is there that melting glaciers will add a new
element to the boundary disputes. Many
glacial streams cross international bound-
aries, and often glaciers are responsible for
recharging aquifers that may be interna-
tional in extent. The Mekong River has a
glacial source in China, and by the time it
reaches the Mekong Delta, it has crossed
China, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambo-
dia, and Vietnam. Talk about a potential
conflict over water.
Clearly the loss of alpine glaciers, which
is accelerating, is a critical global issue, one
that should be recognized and planned for
immediately. Bhutan, a landlocked country
squeezed between India and China at the
eastern end of the Himalayas, was cited as
the happiest country in Asia by
Business
Week
in 2006. It has a government genuinely
concerned with preserving the environ-
ment and the country's culture. It should
not come as a surprise that Bhutan takes
global change seriously and is making firm
plans to move some small villages that are
about to lose their water supply from soon-
to-disappear Himalayan glaciers.
Not all agree, however. Richard Lindzen,
the aforementioned mit professor, believes
that “since about 1970, many of the world's
glaciers have stopped retreating and some
are now advancing again.” This simply is
not true.
