| SELECTED
EXAMPLES OF ICE MELT AROUND THE WORLD |
|
|
|
| Name |
Location |
Measured Loss |
|
|
|
| Arctic
Sea Ice |
Arctic
Ocean |
Sea
ice has thinned from near 3 meters to less than 2 meters over the
last 35 years. Record-low ice recorded in 2002 and 2003; summers could
be ice-free by 2050. |
| Greenland
Ice Sheet |
Greenland |
Has
thinned by more than a meter a year on its southern and eastern edges
since 1993; now thinning more than four times faster than during most
of the 20th century. Annual loss is 51 cubic kilometers. |
| Larsen
B Ice Shelf |
Antarctic
Peninsula |
Over
the past 5 years lost more than 5,700 square kilometers, 3,250 square
kilometers of which disintegrated in early 2002. |
| Ross
Ice Shelf |
Ross
Sea |
In
March of 2000, iceberg B-15 measuring over 10,000 square kilometers
calved off the shelf; a second large section, C-19, covering 6,200
square kilometers calved in May 2002. |
| Mt.
Everest |
Himalayas,
Indian subcontinent |
Glaciers
on Mt. Everest retreated some 5 kilometers in the past 50 years. |
| Tien
Shan Mountains |
Central
Asia |
Glaciers
have shrunk by 30 percent since 1955, losing up to 2 cubic kilometers
of ice per year. |
| 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. Ten to twenty
percent of Alpine glacier ice has been lost over the past 20 years. |
| Kilimanjaro |
Tanzania |
Ice
cap shrunk by 33 percent from 1989 to 2000. Could disappear by 2010
to 2020. |
| Mt.
Kenya |
Kenya |
At
least 7 of the mountain's 18 glaciers disappeared over the 20th century. |
| Alaskan
Glaciers |
Alaska,
United States |
Since
the mid-1990s, Alaskan glaciers have been thinning by 1.8 meters a
year, more than three times as fast as during the preceding 40 years. |
| 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. |
| Quelccaya
Ice Cap |
Andes,
Peru |
The
ice cap's Qori Kalis glacier retreated by 155 meters per year between
1998 and 2000, three times faster than during the previous three year
period. Entire ice cap could disappear by 2020. |
| Antizana
Glacier |
Ecuador |
Retreated
by more than 90 meters over the last 8 years. |
| Chacaltaya
Glacier |
Bolivia |
Melted
to 7 percent of its 1940s volume by 1998. Could disappear by 2010. |
| Carstensz
& West Meren Glaciers |
Papua
Province, Indonesia |
Carstensz
shrunk by 80 percent between 1942 and 2000. West Meren disappeared
entirely in the late 1990s after a retreat of more than 2,600 meters
since its first survey in 1936. |
| Patagonia
Icefields |
Chile
and Argentina |
Ice
thinning rates from 1995 to 2000 were more than double those of the
previous two decades. |
|
|
|
| Updated
by Janet Larsen, Earth Policy Institute, January 2004, from sources
including Worldwatch Institute, WWF, NASA, National Snow and Ice Data
Center, and other scientific literature. |
