Glaciers in Tibet disappear

BEIJING: Scientists studying the effects of global warming in Tibet have come across some alarming changes in the region -- shrinking glaciers, frozen earth melting,
grasslands turning yellow and rivers drying up.
    
A group of scientists led by the World Wildlife Fund recently explored the source of the Yangtze River on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and reported the findings.
    
"The glaciers at the source of the Yangtze River are shrinking much faster than we had anticipated," said Li Yajie, a scientist with the Nanjing Institute of Geography and Limnology under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, who visited the area in the 1980s and again in the 1990s.
    
The breathtaking view of Mount Yuzhu and 14 other snowy peaks stuns passengers travelling along the Qinghai-Tibet railway.
    
But those who enter a typical glacier valley west of Mount Yuzhu will no longer find any trace of a glacier at the snow line altitude of about 5,000 meters. In its place, a sliver of spring water bubbles its way down the flank of the mountain.
    
Scientists found the remnants of the glacier on the far side of the mountain. "There are four stages in the disappearance of a glacier. Sadly, this glacier is already in the last stage," Li was quoted as saying by Xinhua news agency.
    
The Qinghai-Tibet plateau used to boast of 36,000 glaciers with an area of 50,000 sq km which feed several rivers in China, South Asia and Southeast Asia. Major rivers
including the Bhramaputra and Sutlej originate from the Tibet plateau.

In the past 100 years, the area of these glaciers has shrunk by 30 per cent. Scientists say that if the temperature at the end of this century rises to 2.1 to 4 degrees Celsius,
this figure will increase to almost half.
    
As the glaciers melt, they provide water but most of the extra water is vaporised in the warmer weather, Li said.
    
Data from the weather station along the Tuotuo river, the source of the Yangtze river, testifies this.
    
The whole of the Tanggula Range of mountains is hit by higher temperatures, lower rainfall and greater vaporisation losses, an overall trend towards drier weather, said Lei
Aiguo, deputy director of the weather station.
    
Travellers on the Qinghai-Tibet highway have for years been troubled by the bumpy and sometimes chaotic surface of the road.
    
The concrete surface of the highway at Wudaoliang, a small town at an altitude of 4,700 meters, is in very poor condition.
    
The melting of the frozen earth beneath the surface is the cause of 80 per cent of the damage to the road on the Plateau. As the icy core of the earth melts, the road
subsides.
    
The warmer weather gradually releases carbon and hydrogen into the air from the frozen earth, affecting the regional and even the global climate, Li said.
    
The melting of the frozen earth has also impacted vegetation at high altitudes. According to Chinese scientists, 15 per cent of rich grassland and one fourth of wetland at high altitude have vanished in the past 15 years.
    
The scientists have called for more support for ecological research on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, saying that a foundation to attract public donations and help fund the
research should be set up.