Believe it or not - glaciers are growing!
By IANSFriday, January 28, 2011
LONDON - There is some good news regarding climate change - glaciers are actually growing!
The reason being that hotter summers may actually slow down the flow of glaciers, according to researchers.
Increased melting in the warmer summer is causing the internal drainage system of the ice sheet to accommodate more melt-water, without speeding up the flow of ice toward the oceans, the journal Nature reports.
Half of the ice flows in the Karakoram range of mountains are advancing and not retreating, researchers announced in the first major study since a 2007 United Nations report warned the glaciers would melt by 2035, according to the Daily Mail.
The new research, carried out by scientists at the University of California and the University of Potsdam, concluded that global warming is not directly responsible for how glaciers fare.
Bodo Bookhagen, geographer at California, said that “there is no stereotypical Himalayan glacier” and said the UN’s report “lumps all Himalayan glaciers together”, according to the Daily Telegraph.
Owing to this, the acceleration of melting appears to stall early on in hot summer, he said.
The Greenland ice sheet covers roughly 80 percent of the surface of the island and contains enough water to raise sea levels by seven metres if it were to melt completely.
