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At Melting Point: Gangotri shifts, scientists shifty
Published on Fri, Jun 05, 2009 at 11:00, Updated on Mon, Jun 15, 2009 at 10:50 in Sci-Tech » Science section
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Gangotri glacier: It’s said glaciers are the water towers of the planet. But these towers are fast crumbling – melting, rather – to global warming.
In the run-up to World Environment day, a CNN-IBN team comprising correspondents Bahar Dutt, Tridip Mandal and video journalist Farooq Khan undertook a tough journey - trekking 44 km across four days to the source of the river Ganga – the Gangotri glacier – with a team of scientists to witness firsthand how the glacier is melting.
Rajesh Kumar, a glaciologist with the Birla Institute of Technology, points out show the snout of the river has shifted from 1891. “I have found that this has gone back by 2.2 kms during the span of 117 years,” he says.
At the weather station near the glacier, instruments are collecting vital data which show why planet earth is in trouble
Data reveals two-thirds of Himalayan glaciers are melting towards extinction. In the last 50 years 21 per cent of the area covered by the Himalayan glaciers has already vanished.
“The rate of retreat differs for glaciers. For Gangotri, it is somewhere 17-20 m on average per year. The conclusions of these scientists is not confined to the Gangotri glacier,” says scientist Prakash Rao.
The falling pieces of ice at gangotri are a wake up call. The solutions to curbing climate change are many - but they first require us to accept that climate change is upon us.
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