| Page 2 of 2 < |
Experts: Alps Glaciers Will Melt by 2050
In the 13 years spanning 1991-2004, twice as much glacial ice melted away in Europe than in the 30 preceding years from 1961-1990, climatologists say.
To be sure, a few glaciers have more staying power: Switzerland's Great Aletsch Glacier is still more than a half-mile thick and seems destined to survive well into the 22nd century.
  Marc Olefs and Andrea Fischer, from left, researchers from Innsbruck University, check a field covered with white polyethylene against the backdrop of jagged peaks, at Eisgrat (Ice Spine) skiing station on Stubai glacier near the village of Neustift-im-Stubaital, in this July 4, 2005 file photo. Most glaciers will disappear from the Alps by 2050, scientists told a conference on climate change Monday, Jan. 22, 2007, basing their bleak outlook on evidence of slow but steady melting of the region's continental ice sheets. (AP Photo/George Jahn, File) (George Jahn - AP) Special Report
Read complete Post coverage on the science and politics surrounding the threat of human-induced climate change.
IN THE GREENHOUSE: Follow the Post series on the science behind confronting a changing climate. |
But data collected by aircraft and satellites since 2002 has shown that many of Earth's estimated 160,000 glaciers from the Rocky Mountains to the Himalayas have been shrinking.
Scientists say the phenomenon has been occurring for more than a century, suggesting that manmade emissions of carbon dioxide are combining with purely natural factors, such as a shift in jet streams pumping warmer air into traditionally cooler northern climes.
Even in Austria, a relatively sparsely populated country of 8.2 million people, passenger cars alone chug 11.4 million tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere each year, the nation's leading automobile club said Monday.
It urged commuters to consider walking or cycling to work, and called on motorists to ease back, saying a recent study showed that 10 percent of drives covers less than a half-mile _ a distance easily traveled on foot or with a bike.
Europeans, meanwhile, have fretted and sweated their way through an unusually balmy winter that has shattered temperature records and forced World Cup ski organizers to cancel competitions for lack of snow.
"Winter has been in a holding pattern," said Gerhard Baumgartner, a meteorologist with Austria's national weather service.
___
On the Net:
World Glacier Monitoring Service, http:/
