They found that the area of the Bolivian Andes covered
by glaciers decreased from about 530 square kilometres in 1986 to only around 300 square kilometres in 2014, a reduction of 43 %.
Not exact matches
All these cooking fires are, in effect, drying the region, both
by contributing to the melting of
glaciers that feed Asia's major rivers as well as
by decreasing the evaporation that drives rainfall.
Yesterday's study suggests that total
glacier volume across all the investigated basins will
decrease by about 43 percent
by the year 2100, even if the world takes serious steps to mitigate climate change.
For example, [Kruss 1983] has this to say about the Lewis
glacier on Mt. Kenya: «A
decrease in the annual precipitation on the order of 150 mm in the last quarter of the 19th century, followed
by a secular air temperature rise of a few tenths of a degree centigrade during the first half of the 20th century, together with associated albedo and cloudiness variation, constitute the most likely cause of the Lewis
Glacier wastage during the last 100 years.»
In commenting on their findings, the three researchers write that «the large number of stable
glacier termini and
glacier advances is influenced
by positive
glacier mass balances in the central Karakoram during the last decade,» citing Gardelle et al. (2012, 2013) and Kaab et al. (2012), which they indicate is «induced
by increasing winter precipitation and
decreasing summer temperatures since the 1960s,» citing Archer and Fowler (2004), Williams and Ferrigno (2010), Bolch et al. (2012), Yao et al. (2012) and Bocchiola and Diolaiuti (2013).
As for how this could be — and in light of the findings of the references listed above — Rankl et al. reasoned that «considering increasing precipitation in winter and
decreasing summer mean and minimum temperatures across the upper Indus Basin since the 1960s,» plus the «short response times of small
glaciers,» it is only logical to conclude that these facts «suggest a shift from negative to balanced or positive mass budgets in the 1980s or 1990s or even earlier, induced
by changing climatic conditions since the 1960s.»
This can be affected
by warming temperatures, but also
by changes in snowfall, increases in solar radiation absorption due to a
decrease in cloud cover, and increases in the water vapor content of air near the earth's surface.2, 14,15,16,17 In Cordillera Blanca, Peru, for example, one study of
glacier retreat between 1930 and 1950 linked the retreat to a decline in cloud cover and precipitation.18
We conclude
by underlining that the observed variation of
glacier surface and SLA changes could be explained
by the increase of temperature and
decrease of precipitation in recent years.
The smaller
glaciers with < 1 km2 dimension had
decreased by 43 % in their surface area showing rapid disappearance of very small
glacier.
More than one - sixth of the world's population live in
glacier - or snowmelt - fed river basins and will be affected
by the seasonal shift in streamflow, an increase in the ratio of winter to annual flows, and possibly the reduction in low flows caused
by decreased glacier extent or snow water storage (high confidence)[3.4.1, 3.4.3].
In many rivers fed
by glaciers, there will be a «meltwater dividend» during some part of the 21st century, due to increasing rates of loss of
glacier ice, but the continued shrinkage of the
glaciers means that after several decades the total amount of meltwater that they yield will begin to
decrease (medium confidence).
The Neoglacial period is characterized
by generalized
glacier advances that take place coinciding with the
decrease in Northern Hemisphere solar forcing.
But was it not scientists, with their words printed in the Guardian, repeated
by policy - makers, which warned of «Arctic death spirals»; «ice - free Arctic summers»; the proliferation of disease; worsening, intensifying and increasing frequency of storms, flood, drought and fire; dramatic
decreases in agricultural productivity in Africa; increased warming between 2009 - 14; the immanent demise of Himalayan
glaciers and the consequent denial of water to over a billion people; The deaths of 150,000 and then 300,000 people in the developing world each year; and so on?
The retreat has been most noticeable at high elevations, driven in large part
by warming temperatures contributing directly to melting and indirectly to more precipitation falling as rain rather than snow, in turn increasing the rate at which the
glaciers move and increasing the size of glacial lakes, both
decreasing ice cover.
The observed effects of cryosphere reduction include modification of river regimes due to enhanced glacial melt, snowmelt advance and enhanced winter base flow; formation of thermokarst terrain and disappearance of surface lakes in thawing permafrost;
decrease in potential travel days of vehicles over frozen roads in the Arctic; enhanced potential for
glacier hazards and slope instability due to mechanical weakening driven
by ice and permafrost melting; regional ocean freshening; sea - level rise due to
glacier and ice sheet shrinkage; biotic colonisation and faunal changes in deglaciated terrain; changes in freshwater and marine ecosystems affected
by lake - ice and sea - ice reduction; changes in livelihoods; reduced tourism activities related to skiing, ice climbing and scenic activities in cryospheric areas affected
by degradation; and increased ease of ship transportation in the Arctic.
In Western China alone, which consists of 48,571
glaciers with an area of 51,840 sq km (20,015 sq miles), there has been an 18 percent
decrease in its
glaciers over the last 30 - 50 years according to a study
by the Chinese Academy of Sciences» Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research.