People in the Himalayas Need the Glaciers

It is well documented that temperatures in the Himalayas have risen in recent decades and that glaciers in the region are losing mass. According to a study by Ren et al., many of the glaciers on the south slope of the central Himalayas have retreated during the past century, especially after 1960. The researchers point out that the annual mean temperature in the region has gradually increased and that the strongest warming has occurred in the past 30 years. Shrestha et al. have shown that temperatures in the mountain areas of Nepal rose between 0.06 and 0.12 degrees per year from 1971 to 1994 and that the mountains experienced greater warming than the lowlands. While the development of the precipitation pattern is highly complex and general trends are difficult to predict, there is widespread agreement among researchers that increased melting of snow and ice is occurring in many areas of the Himalayan region.