China's Annual Glacial Loss Now Equals Flow Of Yellow River - AFP

[hatrack]

BEIJING (AFP) Aug 23, 2004 - "Global warming is causing China's highland glaciers, including those covering Mount Everest, to shrink by an amount equivalent to all the water in the Yellow River every year, state media said Monday. A staggering seven percent of the country's glaciers vanish annually under the sweltering sun, enough to fill its second-largest river to the brim, the Xinhua news agency reported.

Xinhua, quoting leading glacier expert Yan Tandong, said this has been going on for the past four decades.

This would seem to imply that the glaciers regain some of their losses during the cold months of the year, or there would be very little of them left by now. The issue is of particular concern to Tibet, home to nearly all the country's glaciers, and even Mount Everest has been found to be suffering, Xinhua reported.

A potential silver lining in the form of additional water for China's arid north and west has not materialized, according to the agency." Much of the melted glacier water vaporizes long before it reaches the country's drought-stricken farmers and again global warming is to blame, it reported."

EDIT

http://www.terradaily.com/2004/040823044406.zfd2auob.html

[PeaceForever]

1. No glaciers means no water, correct? n/t

[hatrack]

2. Or a lot less water.

Seasonal snows would still melt and flow downstream, but once they were gone, that would be it. Currently, steady ongoing glacial melt keeps rivers going through the summer after the temporary snowpack has melted.

This could very well not be the case by 2050 or so - the Ganges, the Amu Darya, the Bramaphutra, the Houghly, the Indus and many other S. Asian rivers might simply stop flowing in the summer and start up again during the fall or winter months - not an appealing scenario.

[brokensymmetry]

3. And when the water stops...

the food production stops.

And with 2.6+ billion hungry people....nothing good is likely to happen.