CHINA: A magnificant glacier on China's Mount Meili melts at an alarming speed

High in the mountains of China's Yunnan province, the Mingyong Glacier is retreating 50 to 70 meters a year, endangering the livelihood of villagers depending on an income from visiting tourists. Rising more than 6,700 metres above sea level on the Tibetan border, Mount Meili's glacier is melting. The Mingyong Glacier has been retreating 50 to 70 metres a year, according to locals - feeding ever more water into the Yangtze and Nu Rivers. Chinese scientists have warned that rising temperatures on the Qinghai -Tibet plateau will decimate the nation's glaciers, and trigger a whole host of other problems. Global warming is melting glaciers in China's Tibetan region at a rate of 7.0 percent annually, triggering drought, desertification and sandstorms in other regions. Data collected over four decades has shown that glaciers on the Qinghai-Tibet plateau, known as the "roof of the world," are shrinking at an unprecedented pace. Generations of people have depended on China's Tibetan plateau, but global warming is threatening to wipe out once-thriving communities. Villagers living next to the Mingyong Glacier fear their future is in jeopardy if the current trend continues, threatening to take away their badly needed income from thousands of tourists who visit the area each year. Yumei, a horse handler who guides visitors to the mountains, worries that if the glacier continues to melt at this rate, she will soon be out of work without means to support her family. "All our lives rely on the glacier. If it disappears, we can do nothing. We are all dependent to it", she said. About 47 percent of China's glaciers are on the Qinghai-Tibet plateau in the Himalayas, where the Yangtze, Yellow, Brahmaputra, Mekong and Salween rivers all originate. The rapid rate of glacier melting has meant more water run-offs from the plateau, which exacerbates soil erosion and leads to desertification. As the glacier melts, local villagers can only watch helplessly on the sidelines. "The glacier has melted a lot, especially in recent years. It is disappearing by 50 to 70 metres a year. And it is getting thinner and thinner year by year", local villager Dazhashi said. In part China has itself to blame - the nation is making its own contribution to the trend of global warming. With coal-fired stations providing over 80 percent of China's electricity supply, China is on course to overtake the United States by 2009 as the largest emitter of carbon dioxide, one of the main greenhouse gases that warm the planet. China last year missed its goals of cutting by 4 percent the amount of energy it uses to generate each unit of national income and of reducing emissions of key pollutants by 2 percent. But, for people at Meili Mountain, China's rapid economic growth has little meaning. Their lives and future are closely linked to the faith of Mingyong Glacier and its fast-melting ice. "If more and more people come here, the glacier will melt and disappear which will be irreversible. Then the beautiful scenery will also disappear. By the time, no one will come to the glacier which will not be beautiful anymore," a local tourist guide, Zhouma Quzhong said. The Qinghai-Tibet plateau covers a million square miles -- about a quarter of China's land surface -- at an average altitude of 4,000 meters above sea level. The consequences of global warming and melting glaciers became evident throughout the world. Most places will continue to get warmer, especially at night and winter. Heat waves will probably continue to get worse, killing more people. Sea levels will continue to rise for centuries. Although the rise is gradual, storm surges will cause emergencies and more frequent natural disasters. Weather patterns will keep changing, probably toward an intensified water cycle with stronger storms, floods and droughts. Generally speaking, regions already dry are expected to get drier. In flood-prone regions, whether wet or dry, stronger storms are liable to bring worse flooding. Ice fields and winter snowpacks will shrink, jeopardizing water supply systems in some regions. Increased CO2 levels will also affect biological systems independent of climate change. The oceans are becoming more acidic, which endangers coral and much other important marine life.

ITN Source | March 30, 2007

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