Global warming has been one of the huge issues plaguing the world environment these days. A clear indication of this fact has come up from a recent study. It has indicated that the Himalayas are facing the melting down at a faster rate than it was at the beginning of the century.
The study was based on the satellite imagery from the cold war era. The study showed that the Himalayas lost around 8.3 billion tons of ice per year when compared to the 4.3 billion tons per year during a period ranging between 1975 and 2000.
While the amount of ice being melt is quite an alarmin, what has been more dangerous is the rate at which this erosion is happening. Though this may not raise the sea levels, it is expected to disrupt the water supply rate.
The study was co-authored by Joshua Maurer, a glacier researcher at Columbia University’s Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory and Jorg Schaefer, a climate geochemistry professor at Columbia. Schaefer simply summed up the results of the study as “Disaster is in the making here,” to put it in his own words.
The previous studies were based on the individual glaciers and could not help much in arriving at the exact amount of ice that was melting, while the current study is based on a larger picture and takes into account – it calculates the effect on the 650 glaciers and the pattern of melting the ice over several decades.
The study- as is expected, blames it squarely on the rise of temperatures. Of course, the temperatures vary across multiple regions. The average temperatures observed across the region were observed to be around one degree Celsius between the year 2000 and 2016. A few other factors that have been blamed would include the changes in the rainfall scenario, burning of fossil fuels and similar other reasons that also have been blamed for global warming.
It is not the Himalayas alone. There was a separate study conducted on the Greenland ice sheet. It has been predicted that if the emissions of the greenhouse gases continue at the same rate, it will not be long before the Greenland melts quite soon.
These recent studies provide better inputs into the damaging effects that global warming can have on the environment. Fighting global warming needs a huge transformation in people’s psyche and needs urgent attention. Time is fast running out, and it may be too late to avert disaster if proper steps are not taken.
