Chinese glaciers could be gone in 100 years: study

The world's highest ice fields are melting so quickly that they are on course to disappear within 100 years, driving up sea levels, increasing floods and turning verdant mountain slopes into deserts, Chinese scientists warned on Thursday.

After the most detailed study ever undertaken of China's glaciers, which are said to account for 15 percent of the planet's ice, researchers from the Academy of Science said that urgent measures were needed to prepare for the impact of climate change at high altitude.

Their study, the Glacier Inventory, was approved for publication last week after a quarter of a century of exploration in China and Tibet. It will heighten alarm at global warming.

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2004/09/25/2003204281

Now I really understand the repukelican position on the environment. It doesn't matter at all. The only thing that matters is enriching oneself because the repukes will destroy the world long before the 100 years comes.

is where do they get these projections of such long periods of time. I do not mean 100 years is long period of time in the geologic sense. But I really believe we will see catastrophic events as a result of global warming in the next few years, in 100 years all life will have long since perished. As you can guess, I am NOT a scientist, however, it is my belief that we are already in a deadly spiral with climate change, and only radical steps will help, if at all. I believe there should be a massive worldwide tree-planting project and a complete halt to any further destruction of green spaces. We need to fast track money to renewable energy yesterday, and offer huge incentives for the purchase of hybrids. There should also be a huge WPA style shift to solar/wind power sources, and these steps should be just the beginning!

Mankind's ability to hurt the Earth will be crippled long before the planet is thrown into a death spiral. At some point soon, it will become impossible to assure sufficiently productive harvests, which will result in the death of much of the Earth's population. A climate flip-flop to a new ice age will have the side effect of increasing the ability of the oceans to "sink" carbon. And Mankind will become a small-population species again.

The destruction will be immense and obscene, but Nature will recover within a million years or so -- the blink of a cosmic eye, really.

--bkl

Not to worry...there has been an amzing diversity of life supported over the past few hundred million years.

Our particular species and many of those that now exist along with us may not be so fortunate but in time Mother Nature will recover from the injuries we're inflicting.