| SELECTED
EXAMPLES OF ICE MELT AROUND THE
WORLD |
|
| Name |
Location |
Measured Loss |
| |
|
|
| Arctic
Sea Ice |
Arctic Ocean |
Over the last
35 years, ice has thinned from average of 3.1 meters to 1.8 meters.
Could be ice-free during summer before 2050. |
| Greenland
Ice Sheet |
Greenland |
Has thinned by
more than a meter a year on its southern and eastern edges since 1993. |
| Glacier
National Park |
Rocky Mtns.,
United States |
Since 1850, the
number of glaciers has dropped from 150 to fewer than 50. Remaining
glaciers could disappear completely in 30 years. |
| Larsen
B Ice Shelf |
Antarctic Peninsula |
Over the past
5 years has lost 5,700 square kilometers, 3,250 square kilometers
of which disintegrated in early 2002. |
| Ross
Ice Shelf |
Ross Sea |
In March of 2000,
piece of Ross Ice Shelf the size of Connecticut broke off, making
one of the largest ice bergs ever seen. |
| Dokriani
Bamak Glacier |
Himalayas, India |
Retreated by
20 meters in 1998, compared with 16.5 meters over the previous 5 years. |
| Tien
Shan Mountains |
Central Asia |
Twenty-two percent
of glacial ice volume has disappeared in the past 40 years. |
| Caucasus
Mountains |
Russia |
Glacial volume
has declined by 50 percent in the past century. |
| Alps |
Western Europe |
Glacial volume
has shrunk by more than 50 percent since 1850. Glaciers could be reduced
to only a small fraction of their present mass within decades. |
| Kilimanjaro |
Tanzania |
Ice cap shrunk
by 33 percent from 1989 to 2000. Could disappear by 2015. |
| Quelccaya
Ice Cap |
Andes, Peru |
Rate of retreat
increased to 30 meters a year in the 1990s, up from only 3 meters
a year; will likely disappear before 2020. |
| |
| Source:
Lisa Mastny, "Melting of Earth's Ice Cover Reaches New High," Worldwatch
News Brief, (Washington, DC; Worldwatch Institute, 6 March 2000);
updated by Earth Policy Institute with National Snow and Ice Data
Center, "Antarctic Ice Shelf Collapses," <nsidc.org/iceshelves/larsenb2002>,
19 March 2002; "Breakaway Bergs Disrupt Antarctic Ecosystem," Environment
News Service, 9 May 2002; and Lonnie G. Thompson, "Disappearing Glaciers
Evidence of a Rapidly Changing Earth," American Association for the
Advancement of Science annual meeting proceedings, San Francisco,
CA, February 2001. |
