Page 28 - AT

A28 SCIENCE
Tuesday 23 OcTOber 2018
Melting glacier in China draws tourists, climate worries

By SAM McNEIL and OLIVIA "From here to there at the
ZHANG side, the glacier shrank
Associated Press about 20 to 30 meters. The
YULONGXUESHAN, China shrinking is very remark-
(AP) — The loud crack rang able."
out from the fog above The team forded streams
the Baishui No. 1 Glacier and jumped crevasses in
as a stone shard careened search of long iron bars
down the ice, flying past they previously embed-
Chen Yanjun as he oper- ded in the ice. GPS tells
ated a GPS device. them how much the bars,
More projectiles were tum- and thus the glacier, have
bling down the hulk of ice moved. They also measure
that scientists say is one of how much height the gla-
the world's fastest melting cier has lost during the sum-
glaciers. mer.
"We should go," said the Back on the viewing plat-
30-year-old geologist. "The form, Che launched a buzz-
first rule is safety." ing camera drone over the
Chen hiked away and onto white expanse. The photo-
a barren landscape once graphs help tell a story of
buried beneath the gla- staggering loss. A quarter
cier. Now there is exposed of its ice has vanished since
rock littered with oxygen 1957 along with four of its
tanks discarded by tour- 19 glaciers, researchers
ists visiting the 15,000-foot have found.
(4,570-meter) -high blanket In this photo taken May 2018 and released by Yulong Snow Mountain Glacier and Environmental Changes to the Baishui pro-
Observation Research Station on Oct. 18, 2018, the Baishui Glacier No.1 is visible next to a tourist
of ice in southern China. viewing platform high in the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain in the southern province of Yunnan in vide the opportunity to ed-
Millions of people each China. ucate visitors about global
year are drawn to Baishui's Associated Press warming, Wang said.
frosty beauty on the south- Last year, 2.6 million tour-
eastern edge of the Third Earth is today 1 degree gradually becoming "in- After breakfast, the team ists visited the mountain,
Pole __ a region in Central Centigrade (1.8 Fahren- creasingly serious" for Chi- heads off by van for the according to Yulong Snow
Asia with the world's third- heit) hotter than pre-indus- na. day's mission. A cable car Mountain park officials.
largest store of ice after trial levels because of cli- "China has always had a carries them up to a majes- On blustery day recently,
Antarctica and Green- mate change __ enough freshwater supply prob- tic view of the Jade Drag- hundreds of tourists climbed
land that's roughly the size to melt 28 to 44 percent lem with 20 percent of the on Snow Mountain. wooden stairs through grey
of Texas and New Mexico of glaciers worldwide, ac- world's population but only The team shuffles past a fog to snap selfies in front of
combined. cording to a new report by 7 percent of its freshwater," line of tourists __ many in the glacier.
Third Pole glaciers are vital the U.N. Intergovernmental said Jonna Nyman, an en- red ponchos, most suck- Hou Yugang said he wasn't
to billions of people from Panel on Climate Change. ergy security lecturer at ing oxygen canisters, a few too bothered over climate
Vietnam to Afghanistan. Temperatures are expect- the University of Sheffield. vomiting from altitude sick- change and Baishui's melt-
Asia's 10 largest rivers __ ed to keep rising. "That's heightened by the ness __ before descending ing. "I don't think about it
including the Yangtze, Yel- Baishui is about as close to impact of climate change." to replace a broken mete- now because it still has a
low, Mekong, and Gan- the equator as Tampa, Flor- For years, scientists have orological station. long way to go," he said.
ges __ are fed by seasonal ida. And the impacts of cli- observed global warm- The team operates remote To protect the glacier, au-
melting. mate change already are ing change Jade Dragon sensors that collect data on thorities have limited the
"You're talking about one dramatic. Snow Mountain in the Chi- temperature, wind speed, number of visitors to 10,000
of the world's largest fresh- The glacier has lost 60 per- nese province of Yunnan. rainfall, and humidity. Oth- a day and have banned
water sources," said Ashley cent of its mass and shrunk One research team has er sensors measure water hiking on the ice. They plan
Johnson, energy program 250 meters (820 feet) since tracked Baishui's retreat flow in streams fed by melt- to manufacture snow and
manager at the National 1982, according to a 2018 of about 30 yards (27 me- ed ice. Cold, downpours, to dam streams to increase
Bureau of Asian Research, report in the Journal of ters) per year over the past rock slides, gales and gla- humidity that slows melting.
an American think tank. Geophysical Research. decade. Flowers, such as cier movement break the Security guard Yang Sha-
"Depending on how it Scientists found in 2015 snow lotus, have rooted in equipment. ofeng has witnessed a
melts, a lot of the freshwa- that 82 percent of glaciers exposed earth, says Wang "It is not easy to encounter warming world melting this
ter will be leaving the re- surveyed in China had re- Shijin, a glaciologist and di- good weather here," Wang mountain, which his local
gion for the ocean, which treated. They warned that rector of the Yulong Snow said. Naxi minority community
will have severe impacts on the effects of glacier melt- Mountain Glacial and En- This weather will ensure considers sacred.
water and food security." ing on water resources are vironmental Observation Yunnan has plenty of fresh- Yang remembers being
Research Station, part of a water while other glacier able to see the glacier's
network run by the Chinese loss poses serious risk of lowest edge from his home
Academy of Sciences. drought across the Third village. No longer.
Nestled into a suburb of Liji- Pole, he said. "Only when we climb up
ang, population 1.2 million, The next day, the team can we see it," he said sadly,
the station is home to Wang wore crampons while re- as tourists lined up to have
and his team: geologist pairing more sensors scat- their names engraved on
and drone operator Chen, tered across the glacier's medallions bearing the gla-
postgraduate glaciology crags. cier's image.
student Zhou Lanyue and "Where we're at right now The etching is already
electrical engineer Zhang was back in 2008 all cov- outdated.q
Xing, a private contractor. ered with ice," Wang said.