The official Chinese Xinhua news agency cited the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) as saying that the Qinghai-Tibet plateau in western part of the country has seen its glaciers shrink by 15 percent, or 8,000 square kilometers (3,089 square miles).
The melting of glacier in this region which also covers the Chinese portion of the Himalayas has jumped in the last 30 years. The researchers said that this is the latest sign of the impact of climate change in the region.
The report cited CAS researcher Kang Shichang as saying that "more and bigger cracks" have appeared in ice on Mount Everest, a sign of "rapidly melting glaciers".
The Qinghai-Tibet plateau covers the Tibetan Autonomous Region and the highland parts of neighboring provinces.
A report released by the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in March has said that climate change is set to become a major threat to water security across the world.
The r eport added that in 2013 that humans were the main cause of increases in average global temperatures. The IPCC said that the temperatures are likely to rise by between 0.3 and 4.8 degrees Celsius (0.5 to 8.6 Fahrenheit) by the end of this century.
via Science - Google News http://ift.tt/RWCgg5
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