Global Warming - Melting Himalayan Glaciers

Chinese experts predict that by 2050 the icy area on their side of Himalayas will have shrunk by more than a quarter since 1950. Predictions for the India side are gloomier still.

Himalayan glaciers are among the fastest retreating glaciers in the world due to effect of global warming. This climate change threatening water shortages for thousands of people who rely on glacier-dependent rivers.

"The rapid melting of Himalayan glaciers will first increase the volume of water in rivers, causing widespread flooding," says Jennifer Morgan, director of WWF's global climate change program.

"But in a few decades this situation will change and the water level in rivers will decline, meaning massive economic and environmental problems for people in western China, Nepal and northern India."

Because of the effect India’s agriculture will suffer more in comparison of any other country. The fall in India’s agriculture is about 30-40% by 2080.

WWF says – “As glacier water flows dwindle, the energy potential of hydroelectric power will decrease, causing problems for industry, as well as agriculture, as reduced irrigation means lower crop yields.”

Al Gore got the Nobel Peace Prize with the U.N. Panel

Former Vice President, Al Gore wrapped up a remarkable day of honors on Oct 12, 2007 by sharing the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with a U.N. scientific panel announced by the Norwegian Nobel Committee. He and the panel work to raise awareness about global warming.

Gore and the IPCC were chosen from a list of 181 candidates to split the prize, worth 10 million Swedish kronors(about 1.5 million U.S. dollars).

Gore said - "The climate crisis is not a political issue, it is a moral and spiritual challenge to all of humanity, It is also our greatest opportunity to lift global consciousness to a higher level."

The award ceremony was held on December 10 in Oslo, Norway.

"Through the scientific reports it has issued over the past two decades, the IPCC has created an ever-broader informed consensus about the connection between human activities and global warming," Ole Danbolt Mjoes, chairman of the Nobel committee, said in making the announcement.

"Action is necessary now, before climate change moves beyond man's control," the committee added.

The U.N. panel also warned that global warming could calm hundreds of millions of human lives due to increased risk of disease, starvation, and conflict triggered by drought, floods, storms, and other severe climate effects.

Hurricanes and Global Warming

Hurricanes, typhoons, and cyclones have always bedeviled coasts, but global warming may be making them worse. After doing a research, a series of prominent papers has been published claiming a link between global warming and increasing power of Atlantic hurricanes. There is regular increment in the level of sea level as the glaciers melts. And this will result in higher storm surges, that also increase coastal flodding and damages.

The global community of tropical cyclone researchers and forecasters represented the International Workshop on Tropical Cyclones of the World Meteorological Organization and the summary statement is :

"The surfaces of most tropical oceans have warmed by 0.25-0.5 degree Celsius during the past several decades. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) considers that the likely primary cause of the rise in global mean surface temperature in the past 50 years is the increase in greenhouse gas concentrations.

There have been a number of recent high-impact tropical cyclone events around the globe. These include 10 landfalling tropical cyclones in Japan in 2004, five tropical cyclones affecting the Cook Islands in a five-week period in 2005, Cyclone Gafilo in Madagascar in 2004, Cyclone Larry in Australia in 2006, Typhoon Saomai in China in 2006, and the extremely active 2004 and 2005 Atlantic tropical cyclone seasons - including the catastrophic socio-economic impact of Hurricane Katrina.

Some recent scientific articles have reported a large increase in tropical cyclone energy, numbers, and wind-speeds in some regions during the last few decades in association with warmer sea surface temperatures. Other studies report that changes in observational techniques and instrumentation are responsible for these increases."