A Worldwide Problem

Without water life cannot exist, rather unfortunate then, that over half of the worlds potable water supply comes from rivers. Rivers are sensitive to change, they are fuelled by precipitation and melt water; both of which are likely to be affected by future climate change (Barnett et al., 2005). A variation of temperature from what we consider normal today would see a change in glacial melt water regimes in snowmelt-dominated areas; but is this actually a problem?

It is when you consider the performance of water management systems, which have been built specifically for current climatic conditions (Barnett et al., 2005). A warmer climate would mean less snow accumulating during the winter period and an earlier melt in the summer period. One region that climate change will have a profound impact is in the Himalayan period, again as mentioned in previous posts in terms of volume of ice, it has the 3^rd largest in the world, but what is crucial is that it supplies water to a significant part of Asia. The China glacial inventory shows that there has been substantial melting in most glaciers, one in particular has retreated 750 metres; alarming when it is noted that it is the main contributor to the Yangtze river (Barnett et al., 2005). The inventory suggests that the rate of glacial retreat is increasing.

To draw from another area of the world with respect to proving glacial retreat is a real threat to societies we venture to the Andes. The summit core of the Quelccaya glacier taken in 1976 was layered; it showed the annual cycle of the glacier and could be traced back 1500 years. A core was taken from the same glacier in 1991 and the layers from the past 20 years were non existent because of the percolation of meltwater (Barnett et al., 2005). Melting at the summit of the glacier is taking place and has been for the last 20 years, something that hasn’t happened in the previous 1500 years ago. Both examples show that glaciers are retreating and not just in one area of the world….

My View

Clearly melting of glaciers is taking place, hopefully those reading this blog now realise this. Clearly it is going to have a high impact on the world and not just on one specific region but the impacts are likely to be felt in most areas of the world.