Disappearing Himalayan glaciers: believe your eyes
Much fuss was made by some of the disbelievers in a warming world because of a bit of sloppy work by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) when it wrote of disappearing Himalayan glaciers. The evidence quoted by the IPCC was not spot on and the inadequacy was seized upon to suggest that the claim was completely false. Which is what makes the Rivers of Ice exhibitioncurrently being staged in New York by the Asia Society such an important contribution to the global warming debate. It shows a series of pictures by photographer and mountaineer David Breashears, who with Glacier Research Imaging Project (GRIP), has retraced the steps of renowned mountain photographers of the past century to recapture images of Himalayan mountains and their glaciers from exactly the same vantage points. Rivers of Ice — Vanishing Glaciers of the Greater Himalaya displays his recent photographs alongside the corresponding historic images, revealing the alarming loss in ice mass that has taken place over the intervening years.
The West Rongbuk Glacier in 1927
The West Rongbuk Glacier in 2009
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