Page 32 - ARUBA TODAY

A32 FEATURE
Monday 22 october 2018
Melting glacier in China draws tourists, climate worries

By SAM McNEIL tracked Baishui's retreat
OLIVIA ZHANG of about 30 yards (27 me-
Associated Press ters) per year over the past
YULONGXUESHAN, China decade. Flowers, such as
(AP) — The loud crack rang snow lotus, have rooted in
out from the fog above exposed earth, says Wang
the Baishui No. 1 Glacier Shijin, a glaciologist and di-
as a stone shard careened rector of the Yulong Snow
down the ice, flying past Mountain Glacial and En-
Chen Yanjun as he oper- vironmental Observation
ated a GPS device. Research Station, part of a
More projectiles were tum- network run by the Chinese
bling down the hulk of ice Academy of Sciences.
that scientists say is one of Nestled into a suburb of Liji-
the world's fastest melting ang, population 1.2 million,
glaciers. the station is home to Wang
"We should go," said the and his team: geologist
30-year-old geologist. "The and drone operator Chen,
first rule is safety." postgraduate glaciology
Chen hiked away and onto student Zhou Lanyue and
a barren landscape once electrical engineer Zhang
buried beneath the gla- Xing, a private contractor.
cier. Now there is exposed After breakfast, the team
rock littered with oxygen heads off by van for the
tanks discarded by tour- day's mission. A cable car
ists visiting the 15,000-foot This Sept. 21, 2018 photo shows the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain in the southern province of Yun- carries them up to a majes-
(4,570-meter) -high blanket nan in China home to a glacier that scientists say is one of the fastest melting glaciers in the world tic view of the Jade Drag-
of ice in southern China. due to climate change and its relative proximity to the Equator. on Snow Mountain.
Millions of people each Associated Press The team shuffles past a
year are drawn to Baishui's line of tourists __ many in
frosty beauty on the south- Baishui is about as close to that 82 percent of glaciers 7 percent of its freshwater," red ponchos, most suck-
eastern edge of the Third the Equator as Tampa, Flor- surveyed in China had re- said Jonna Nyman, an en- ing oxygen canisters, a few
Pole __ a region in Central ida. And the impacts of cli- treated. They warned that ergy security lecturer at vomiting from altitude sick-
Asia with the world's third mate change already are the effects of glacier melt- the University of Sheffield. ness __ before descending
largest store of ice after dramatic. ing on water resources are "That's heightened by the to replace a broken mete-
Antarctica and Green- The glacier has lost 60 per- gradually becoming "in- impact of climate change." orological station.
land that's roughly the size cent of its mass and shrunk creasingly serious" for Chi- For years, scientists have The team operates remote
of Texas and New Mexico 250 meters (820 feet) since na. observed global warm- sensors that collect data on
combined. 1982, according to a 2018 "China has always had a ing change Jade Dragon temperature, wind speed,
Third Pole glaciers are vital report in the Journal of freshwater supply prob- Snow Mountain in the Chi- rainfall, and humidity. Oth-
to billions of people from Geophysical Research. lem with 20 percent of the nese province of Yunnan. er sensors measure water
Vietnam to Afghanistan. Scientists found in 2015 world's population but only One research team has flow in streams fed by melt-
Asia's 10 largest rivers __ ed ice. Cold, downpours,
including the Yangtze, Yel- rock slides, gales and gla-
low, Mekong, and Gan- cier movement break the
ges __ are fed by seasonal equipment.
melting. "It is not easy to encounter
"You're talking about one good weather here," Wang
of the world's largest fresh- said.
water sources," said Ashley This weather will ensure
Johnson, energy program Yunnan has plenty of fresh-
manager at the National water while other glacier
Bureau of Asian Research, loss poses serious risk of
an American think tank. drought across the Third
"Depending on how it Pole, he said.
melts, a lot of the freshwa- The next day, the team
ter will be leaving the re- wore crampons while re-
gion for the ocean, which pairing more sensors scat-
will have severe impacts on tered across the glacier's
water and food security." crags.
Earth is today 1 degree "Where we're at right now
Centigrade (1.8 Fahren- was back in 2008 all cov-
heit) hotter than pre-indus- ered with ice," Wang said.
trial levels because of cli- "From here to there at the
mate change __ enough side, the glacier shrank
to melt 28 to 44 percent about 20 to 30 meters. The
of glaciers worldwide, ac- shrinking is very remark-
cording to a new report by able." The team forded
the U.N. Intergovernmental This Sept. 21, 2018 aerial photo shows a couple posing for photographs at the Valley of the Blue streams and jumped cre-
Panel on Climate Change. Moon glacial lake fed by the Baishui Glacier No.1 atop the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain in the vasses in search of long iron
Temperatures are expect- southern province of Yunnan in China. Associated Press bars they previously em-
ed to keep rising. bedded in the ice. q