India: Glaciers not melting, no link to climate change

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India: Glaciers not melting, no link to climate change

Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh released a paper, 'Himalayan Glaciers: A State-of Art Review of Glacial Studies, Glacial Retreat and Climate Change' by VK Raina, India's senior most glaciologist, which states that the glaciers are not receding.

CJ: B K Upmanyu

Wed, Nov 11, 2009 12:26:55 IST

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Climate Change Issues :

ACCORDING TO the Indian Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report and international studies, India has officially asserted that the Himalayan glaciers were not receding due to global warming.

“Most Himalayan glaciers are retreating. But some like Siachen are advancing and some like Gangotri are receding at a declining rate. However, there is no conclusive scientific evidence to link global warming or black carbon and the retreating Himalayan glaciers and that they will vanish in near future as propagated by the West. No abnormal retreat has been recorded,” Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh told reporters at New Delhi.

Ramesh released the discussion paper on ‘Himalayan Glaciers: A State-of Art Review of Glacial Studies, Glacial Retreat and Climate Change’ by VK Raina, India’s senior most glaciologist and former Deputy Director General of Geological Survey of India.

The findings of the study, are in sharp contrast to the IPCC’s 2007 report which said that the Himalayan glaciers were receding faster than in any other part of the world and at the current rate of global warming, could disappear by 2035.

Ramesh however, said, “We are not challenging the IPCC. We have an alternate view. It challenges conventional wisdom and is not a political report. I would like scientists the world over to critique the report. They may debate the causes, but the health of the glaciers is very poor and the level of debris has reached alarming proportions. ”

He also said that, in a bid to give impetus to research in glaciology, at least 15 weather stations will be set up in Uttarakhand, Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh and Jammu.

On his part, Raina said, “We cannot say if it is abnormal, because we don’t know what is normal. Also it doesn’t suggest that they will vanish within decades. Observation of glacial loss in other parts of the world, including the Artic region, cannot be extrapolated to the Himalayan glaciers, which are on higher altitudes. Though glaciers contribute only about 10 per cent of the water flow in south Asian rivers, they are vital to ensuring perennial water flow in these rivers with 1.3 billion people dependent on them.”

The IPCC has estimated that the retreat of glaciers could affect the water supply of roughly 750 million people across South Asia and China. The current trends in glacial melt suggest that Ganga, Indus, Brahmaputra and other rivers that criss-cross the northern Indian plain may become seasonal rivers in the near future, as a consequence of climate change, with important ramifications for poverty and the economies in the region.

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	This doesn't make any sense.If temperatures are rising, how can you exclude that as a forcing on glaciers?Answer: You can't.Climate change from the Earth's changing ecosphere is unpredictable. Mankind is natural. Anything man does is natural. If man fired off all of his nuclear bombs at one time, mankind would force a planet wide extinction event.And it would be natural.From an extra-terrestrial perspective, all fledgling societies that harness the power of the sun as we have toy with the possibility of self-annihilation.The collective human brain is a force of nature that rivals the strong nuclear force.It is a force that has more power than it can control because it is still in its infancy. Wheteher we realize it or not, humanity has the ability to lay to waste all of the life support systems currently in operation today.Most individuals don't want to know this and have little mental capacity to internalize it.
	\| 12 November 2009 Reply to Comment \| New Comment \| Report Abuse

	The world is going to get hotter, nothing humans can do is going to change it. Bottom line is, the whole global warming "racket" was a political one creates by Margret Thatcher govt. which is not backed by an iota of proper science
	\| 12 November 2009 Reply to Comment \| New Comment \| Report Abuse

	Global warming is a NATURAL thing. Humans are not responsible for. The climate of the planet always changes. You dont have to take my word for it. Just check out the temperature graphs(google). I am sick of all the politicised "Global Warming" propaganda. Guess who is making a pile of money out of it-Al Gore...again u can google it
	\| 11 November 2009 Reply to Comment \| New Comment \| Report Abuse

Once there was a man who was cutting a branch on which he sat. People came and warned him, "Don't do it, you'll fall to your death!" And he told them, a branch falling is a NATURAL thing. Branches always fall in a forest. You don't have to take my word for it. Just look round the forest (or google it?). I'm sick of all the politicised "Branches Falling" propaganda. Guess who is making a pile of money out of it. Our Ramu there, he sells the wood. Again you can google it!"You can Google arguments for every stand. You can't google lost time.

Coppersmith | 11 November 2009

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