ASIA / PACIFIC
Page 16 n THE ASIAN REPORTER
September 18, 2017
Asia’s glaciers face massive melt from global warming
MASSIVE MELTDOWN. International trekkers
pass through a glacier at Mount Everest base camp in
Nepal, in this February 22, 2016 file photo. Scientists
say one-third of the ice stored in Asia’s glaciers will
be lost by the end of the century even if the world
manages to meet its ambitious goal of keeping global
warming below 1.5º Celsius. (AP Photo/Tashi Sherpa,
File)
By Frank Jordans
The Associated Press
ERLIN — Scientists say one-third
of the ice stored in Asia’s glaciers
will be lost by the end of the
century even if the world manages to meet
its ambitious goal of keeping global
warming below 1.5º Celsius, affecting
water supplies for millions of people on the
continent.
In a paper published in the journal
Nature, researchers in the Netherlands
also examined what would happen if
average global temperatures rise beyond
1.5º Celsius (2.7º Fahrenheit) by the end of
the century. They concluded that almost
two-thirds of the ice in Asia’s glaciers could
vanish, if no effort is made to curb climate
change.
“In regions where glacier melt water is
an important part of the river flow, the
retreating glaciers can become a problem,”
said Philip Kraaijenbrink, a University of
Utrecht geographer who led the study.
“There are many people living in basins
that have their rivers originating in Asia’s
high mountains, such as the Indus,
Ganges, and Brahmaputra,” Kraaijen-
brink said. “In these basins, the river
water is used for irrigation of cropland,
drinking water, and for hydropower
dams.”
The 1.5º target was set at the inter-
national climate conference in Paris two
years ago, but experts say it would require
a massive shift to the world economy.
In total, the researchers compared 110
climate simulations and found that high
mountain glaciers in Asia tended to
experience greater levels of warming than
the global average. All glaciers analyzed
already are losing mass except those in the
B
Kunlun Mountains of western China.
Taking into account the effect on
melting levels of rubble covering some of
the glaciers, they concluded that the
amount of ice lost from Asian glaciers is
almost proportional to the amount of
warming they experience, though with
some regional variations.
“Even if temperatures stabilize at their
current level, mass loss will continue for
decades to come until a new equilibrium is
reached,” the researchers said.
Kraaijenbrink acknowledged that a
scenario in which global warming remains
under 1.5º Celsius is optimistic.
“We are aware that more extreme,
business-as-usual scenarios are possibly a
more likely future,” he said.
In a comment published along with the
study, J. Graham Cogley of Trent
University in Canada said the researchers’
glacier model “has some innovative
features that might raise eyebrows among
glaciologists, but it is difficult to find fault
with it as a pioneering effort.”
“The authors have shown that achieving
the 1.5º target will conserve a substantial
fraction of Asia’s water resources and that,
if we fail in this regard, we will pay in
direct proportion to the extent of the
failure,” Cogley said.
Ruling halts commercial scooping of Hawai‘i aquarium fish
Continued from page 9
lection permit authorizes removal of an
unlimited number of fish or other aquatic
life from Hawai‘i’s coastal waters, the
ruling noted. The state also issues
recreational aquarium collection permits
that authorize an annual catch limit of
2,000 fish for each permit.
There’s no limit on what kinds of fish are
taken and how many permits are issued,
Achitoff said. “You really have this
unlimited take of public resources and
they’re just taken so that people can make
money,’’ he said.
The ruling reverses lower court
decisions that sided with the state.
The ruling also reverses “more than 60
years of previously unchallenged practice
by the Department of Land and Natural
Resources,’’ said a statement from Hawai‘i
attorney general Doug Chin. “We are
reviewing the decision to determine what
action the state will take in light of the
ruling.’’
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