Reuters: Glacier melting a key clue to tracking climate change

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE62302A20100304

Glacier melting a key clue to tracking climate change

David Fogarty and Yereth Rosen
SINGAPORE/ANCHORAGE
Thu Mar 4, 2010 9:18am EST

Like many low-altitude glaciers, it's steadily melting, shrinking two miles over the past 200 years as it tries to strike a new balance with rising temperatures.

At the Kenai Fjords National Park south of Anchorage, managers have learned to follow the Exit and other glaciers, moving signs and paths to accommodate the ephemeral rivers of blue and white ice as they retreat up deeply carved valleys.

"Some of the stuff is changing fast enough that we now have signs on moving pedestals," said Fritz Klasner, natural resource specialist at Kenai Fjords.

The vast amounts of water stored in glaciers play crucial roles in river flows, hydropower generation and agricultural production, contributing to steady run-off for Ganges, Yangtze, Mekong and Indus rivers in Asia and elsewhere.

...

[Nihil]

1. That would be funny if it weren't so sad ...

> At the Kenai Fjords National Park south of Anchorage, managers have learned
> to follow the Exit and other glaciers, moving signs and paths to accommodate
> the ephemeral rivers of blue and white ice as they retreat up deeply carved
> valleys.
> "Some of the stuff is changing fast enough that we now have signs on moving
> pedestals" said Fritz Klasner, natural resource specialist at Kenai Fjords.

:cry: