On October 15, 2006, a Chinese scientific expedition team set off from Lhasa in the direction of the mysterious Himalayas, marking the prelude to the first joint scientific expedition by scientists from China, India, Nepal and Bhutan to the northern and southern slopes of the Himalayas. Xinhua News Agency reporter Quan Xiaoshu took a photo during the inspection.
Munir of India's National Institute of Geophysics? Ahmed said a large Himalayan glacier in Kashmir had shortened by almost 22 meters in 2007, while several other smaller glaciers had disappeared entirely.
Ajit of the Indian Meteorological Agency? If the planet continues to warm at its current rate, glaciers will melt even faster, Tiagi said.
He said at a recent meeting, 150,000 Himalayan glaciers form a unique reservoir that feeds the year-round rivers of the Indus, Ganges and Brahmaputra rivers, which are the main drinking water for more than a billion people in South Asia**.
Judging by the current rate of glacial melting, it is possible that the great rivers flowing through the northern part of the Indian plains will become seasonal rivers in the near future.
Some scientists believe that a nearly two-mile-thick cloud of pollution suspended over Asia may be the cause of the problem. It was thought that pollution clouds created by burning wood and manure and burning fields and forests would block sunlight and help reduce ground temperatures. But scientists now know that soot particles in those clouds actually absorb sunlight, increasing the amount of heat absorbed by the ground by nearly 50 percent.