Climate change leading to depleting glaciers in Himalayas: IPCC

NEW DELHI: A report by the Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released on Monday, August 9, evidently mentions the effect of climate change on glaciers and snow cover on the mountains. The Sixth Assessment Report by IPCC said that global warming will have devastating effects on mountains across the world.

The report goes on to say that the glaciers across the world are melting and this phenomenon is ‘locked in’ and cannot be reversed. It added that levels of rise in temperatures in mountains and melting glaciers will be unprecedented in next 2,000 years.

The report also throws light on the surge of incidents like landslides caused by melting of glaciers on Nanda Devi at Chamoli, Uttarakhand, which caused massive floods in the region. The report states that extreme rainfall is projected to increase in major mountainous regions, with likely consequence of floods, landslide and lake outbursts.

Dr Friederike Otto, Associate Director, Environment Change Institute, University of Oxford, said that human influence is responsible for the retreat of mountain glaciers in the 20^th century. He added that the glaciers are one of the slowest responding parts of climate system, hence, the retreat witnessed now is the result of the actions of past and it is not an immediate effect.

A rise in temperature has been recorded in the Himalayas, the Swiss Alps and the Central Andes. Increase in temperatures on such altitudes could result in faster changes in the snowline. The report states that the mountain glaciers will continue to melt and shrink in all the regions where they are present.

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