Photo Gallery Shrinking Glaciers
A new report sponsored by the UN shows that glaciers across the globe are melting faster than ever. Many could disappear within decades, and their decline could cause droughts and chaos for billions of people who depend on rivers fed by glacier waters.
Some of the fastest thaws are happening on glaciers in Europe. The Aletsch glacier in Switzerland, the largest in the Alps, is experiencing pronounced thawing.
The Ferpecle glacier, also in Switzerland, is also melting at an accelerated rate. Here, water from the glacier drips into a mountain stream.
Europe may be an international leader on climate change, but the global phenomenon of global warming is not exempting the continent's glaciers. Last month European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso (center) and Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg (left) visited a thawing glacier in Norway.
The Sermeq Kujalleq glacier in Greenland, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, has also thawed in recent years.
The United Nations Environment Programme, which sponsored the glacier study, warned Sunday that glacial thawing could endanger millions of people who depend on glacial melt for fresh water. This has been the second warmest winter on record in Pakistan, and the Passu glacier there is shrinking fast.
The Upsala glacier, in Argentina's Los Glaciares National Park, may disappear by 2020 or 2030, say scientists there.
