Scientists Race to Sample Glaciers as They Melt from Global Warming
Scientists Race to Sample Glaciers as They Melt from Global Warming
https://www.democracynow.org/2017/6/23/headlines/scientists_race_to_sample_glaciers_as_they_melt_from_global_warming
Headline Jun 23, 2017
And in Bolivia, scientists said this week theyre in a race against time to sample ice from melting glaciers before global warming erases thousands of years worth of records of Earths climate. Glaciologists with the Ice Memory Project took ice cores from the Illimani Mountain in Bolivias Andes, noting the glacier was almost a full degree warmer than a previous sample. This is scientist Patrick Ginot.
Patrick Ginot: "We can prove that the temperature of the glacier has risen 0.7 degrees centigrade in 18 years. This glacier, at 6,500 meters above sea level, will heat up bit by bit, and with global warming, it will lose all the information that we are going to take from these ice samples. That is why we cannot wait 10 more years."
Worldwide, at least 200 million people depend on glaciers for drinking water and are at risk of being left without water due to melting ice.