U.N.: Glaciers Melting Twice as Fast

About a billion people in South Asia rely on Himalayan glaciers like this, the Chorabari Glacier, which feed major rivers like the Ganges.

The Chorabari, like other glaciers worldwide, is retreating, probably due to global warming.

In this false-color image, the land surface appears reddish brown, snow cover appears white with dark blue shadows, and glaciers appear pale blue.

Photo: Terra / NASA/NASA

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Some of the world's most important glaciers have increased their rate of melting, with the average rate more than doubling between 2004 and 2006, the United Nations Environment Program reported Sunday.

The World Glacier Monitoring Service, in Zurich, Switzerland, monitors 30 glaciers in nine mountain ranges.

“The latest figures are part of what appears to be an accelerating trend with no apparent end in sight,” said Wilfried Haeberli, director fo the World Glacier Monitoring Service.

Since 1980, these glaciers have lots about 38 feet of ice thickness.

“There are many canaries emerging in the climate change coal mine,” said Achim Steiner, the executive director of the U.N. Environment Program. “The glaciers are perhaps among those making the most noise and it is absolutely essential that everyone sits up and takes notice.”

World leaders will meet in Copenhagen next year to agree on a successor to the Kyoto Protocol, the flawed first attempt to regulate carbon emissions worldwide, and rein in global warming.

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