Fast-melting glaciers threatening earth's long-term water supply, scientists say
By Lisa Schlein
Experts warn that climate change is speeding up melting on Earth's frozen peaks, threatening the planet's long-term water supply.
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or example, scientists say Swiss glaciers have lost 10 percent of their volume in the past five years. The disappearance of hundreds of small glaciers in the Alps was dramatized when hundreds of mourners recently attended what was dubbed a "funeral" to mark the loss of Switzerland's Pizol glacier.
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Summit co-chair, Canadian John Pomeroy, a water resources and climate change expert, said the loss of water resources in mountain ranges around the world is devastating the communities in those areas. He said it also is destabilizing vast populations downstream.
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"For the high mountain communities or valleys in north India, Pakistan, central Asia, their irrigation is the only source of water for agriculture that is currently provided by ice melt from glaciers,” Pomeroy said. “And the glaciers are retreating … In the Western U.S., 90 percent of the water supplies are from the high mountains and they drive the economy."
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