Global Warming

Central Asian glaciers shrinking fast

Central Asian glaciers have melted at four times the global average since the early 1960s, shedding 27 per cent of their mass, according to a study released today.

By 2050, warmer temperatures driven by climate change could wipe out half the remaining glacier ice in the Tien Shan mountain range, reported the study, published in Nature Geoscience.

At stake is a critical source of water for people in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, as well as a section of northwest China.

“Glaciers are actually huge water stores. They can balance water between wet and dry years,” said co-author Doris Duethmann, a researcher at the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences in Potsdam.

Tien Shan glaciers have lost an average of 5.4 billion tonnes of ice per year since the 1960s, totalling some 3,000 square kilometres (1,158 square miles).

The rate at which the glaciers shrank greatly accelerated in the 1970s and 1980s.

Climate models point to higher summer temperatures in coming decades along the 2,500 kilometres of the Tien Shan range, thus making the glaciers even more vulnerable, the study said.