Record retreat in Swiss glaciers in 2003 due to climate change: scientists

[Barrett808]

Switzerland's glaciers melted by a record amount during 2003 under the onslaught of long-term climate change, a top Swiss science academy said Tuesday.

The retreat of the glaciers in the Swiss Alps reached up to 150 metres, with an overall melting exceeding that observed in any year since measurements began in the 19th century, according to the Swiss Academy of Natural Sciences.

And the shrinkage of the mountain ice was not the direct result of record hot summer temperatures in Switzerland and Europe last year, it added.

"The overall view that emerges is of a clarity never seen before since annual measurements started in 1880. None of the glaciers progressed or were stationary," the academy in Bern said in a statement.

"These observations should not be associated directly with the extreme summer heat, the length of the glaciers reacts with a delay to the change in climate," it added.

(more)

http://www.spacedaily.com/2004/040113181427.81tcfnon.html

[wroberts189]

1. This is getting very scary..

What happens when everything (poles,glaciers) is melted?

Bad things I think