(View from Gulmarg: Photo taken on 13 May 2012 by PRC
It was not so long ago that we received a severe jolt from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climatic
Change (IPCC) that the Himalayan
glaciers will be disappearing into thin
year by roughly 2035. This meant serious repercussions. Possibility of rivers
of Indian Peninsula
and China Himalayas
before it was too late. Fortunately for everybody , the preposterous
hypothetical prediction was soon withdrawn,
with the explanation that all
parameters that govern
the waxing and waning of glaciers were
not taken into account.
Though almost akin to bank balance it is indeed it is
very difficult to monitor the credit and
debit pattern in ( or of) glaciers. Credit
accrual is when snow fall and avalanche get deposited
and debit is through melting and caving.
But these don’t appear as neat line items on adjacent
columns as in a bank passbook, so that
we can check out the balance easily. (In a way it is as unpredictable as foretelling the occurrence of puddles that
rains leave behind along the
length and breadth of Bangalore
Hence it cannot be denied that global warming
will adversely affect the glaciers,
however imperceptibly it might be. Attempts
are being made by several scientific groups globally to study this . Bolch et al (1) in the
April 20th issue of Science ask the pertinent question: How can
we make periodic, three dimensional (length, depth and area) inventory
of the glaciers?. In their opinion, location observatories, coupled
with remote sensing techniques
and accurate modeling would be
one step forward. Himalayas , Antarctic ice sheets too are sending faint yet sure signals of melting. Pritchard et al ( 2) draw our attention to the fact that the repercussions may be felt in a time frame of decades, as an infintesimal yet definite increase in sea level.
Warm climates have ushered in other unexpected ecological changes, so Pauli
et al (3)would like us to believe. Over a seven year period the team monitored the biodiversity (floral) across major mountain
ranges in Europe . The results seem to justify their hypothesis that global warming might drive plant species up the mountain slopes. It would indeed be
interesting to conduct a similar study along the Himalayan slopes. First in the series should be " Is the Valley
of Flowers receding ?" Would be exciting
to be part of such a scientific expedition.
Europe has been closely monitoring Mother Earth , through its eyes in the sky the ENVISAT. Since 2002 this satellite has been providing European Space Agency (ESA) with the vital statistics of Earth through a variety of multiply enabled instruments. ESA received signals from ENVISAT till 8th of April 2012. Since then there has been no contacts. The implications are that the satellite's main computer or the power up system might have failed. This has crippled a lot of agencies who are dependent on data from ENVISAT (4)
Tailpiece :
Read about an interesting experiment to protect the
glaciers of Alps . Those concerned decided to insulate them by wrapping them in blankets !
References :
1.The state and fate of Himalayan Glaciers : Bolch et
al Science 20th April 2012,
Vol. 336, pages 310-314
2.. Antarctic ice-sheet loss driven by basam melting of ice shelves : Pritchard et al Nature 26th April 2012, Vol. 484 pages 502-505
2.. Antarctic ice-sheet loss driven by basam melting of ice shelves : Pritchard et al Nature 26th April 2012, Vol. 484 pages 502-505
3. Recent plant diversity changes on Europe ’s
mountain summits: Pauli et al Science 20
April 2012, Vol. 336, pages 353- 355.
4. Europe loses sight of Earth : Brumfiel, Nature 26th April 2012, Vol. 484, page 423
4. Europe loses sight of Earth : Brumfiel, Nature 26th April 2012, Vol. 484, page 423
