Himalayan Glaciers Lost Nearly 8 Billion Tonnes Of Ice Each Year Since 2000 Due To Climate Change

The Himalayas, also referred to as the third pole, have lost ice at a dramatic pace in the last two decades. Over the last 40 years, melting of glaciers has doubled in the region.

The study shows that since 2000, glaciers heights have been shrinking by an average of 0.5m per year.

Scientists say that climate change is the primary cause of this.

During the Cold War, a telescope shaped American spy satellite code-named Hexagon circled the planet snapping high-resolution photographs of forests and mountains (and a few military bases).

Oblique view of a Himalayan landscape captured by a KH-9 Hexagon satellite on 20 December 1975 on the border between eastern Nepal and Sikkim, India./NRO/USGS

Recently, a team of scientists stitched together the images clicked by the satellite and created a three-dimensional digital model of the Himalayas as they existed more than 40 years ago. By comparing the model images with the images taken today, researchers found that Himalayan glaciers are melting at double the rate since 2000 as during the period of 1976 to 2000, and that a warmer planet is the culprit, apart from changes in rainfall in the region and soot deposited from industrial pollutants that hastens melting by absorbing heat.

But between 2000 and 2016, the glaciers melted approximately twice as fast - losing about 8 billion tonnes of ice each year on average.

The study looked at 650 glaciers ad found they have been losing a foot-and- a-half of ice each year since 2000. The faster melting is also a threatening water security to millions of people who rely on it.

Meltwater from glaciers in Asia¡¯s high mountain ranges, including the Himalayas, meets the basic water needs of about 221 million people each year. However, this freshwater reservoir is shrinking as Himalayas are losing water at a faster pace than collecting it.

These losses are set to have a huge impact.

In the long-term, millions of people in the region who depend on glacier water during drought years could experience very immense complications.

When ice runs out, most of Asia¡¯s biggest rivers, that are a source of lifeline to billions of people, will lose water supply, threatening livelihood and creating drought conditions.

Without these glaciers, droughts will bring misery to the water-stressed population that lives downstream.