Access
This article is part of Nature's premium content.
Published online 23 July 2008 | Nature 454, 393-396 (2008) | doi:10.1038/454393a
News Feature
China: The third pole
Climate change is coming fast and furious to the Tibetan plateau. Jane Qiu reports on the changes atop the roof of the world.
The Tibetan plateau gets a lot less attention than the Arctic or Antarctic, but after them it is Earth's largest store of ice. And the store is melting fast.
To read this story in full you will need to login or make a payment (see right).
Comments
Reader comments are usually moderated after posting. If you find something offensive or inappropriate, you can speed this process by clicking 'Report this comment' (or, if that doesn't work for you, email redesign@nature.com). For more controversial topics, we reserve the right to moderate before comments are published.
I do not believe that global warming "has been going on for fifty years." Many of us are looking forward to an independent opinion on the issue of global warming from this "Third Pole." Hopefully it will not come from the Chinese equivalent of Al Gore! - Oliver K. Manuel, http://www.omatumr.com, omatumr@yahoo.com
One looking for an "independent comment" on global warming should try his own brain; how can seven or more billion humans and their technology not influence the globe's climate habits? Sure, it started slowly, 200 years ago, finding the oil and starting to burn what took 200,000,000 years to become a carbon sink. That is now 50% done. And still there are people waiting for an independent comment? On what? Is it not enough to measure and compare the CO2 figures, alone? Not enough that thousands of scientists come up with the very same warnings? Even animals take precautions, sometimes "just in case"; animals that we think lack brain capacity but that have cultivated their instincts; obviously something that the human race has lost in favor of a giant brain mass. I doubt that this is a garanty for survival. Christian A. Wittke
The title is misleading - It should be Tibet: The third pole. Ramanathan's suggestion to "to give villagers access to better forms of energy" is a belling the cat type of solution - what exactly and how? Oliver Manuel writes - "I do not believe that global warming "has been going on for fifty years."" – unfortunately one cannot address belief systems with reason and logic. Christian A. Wittke writes "One looking for an "independent comment" on global warming should try his own brain;.." - there are drawbacks to that suggestion – the brain maybe inadequate and poorly informed, which would reflect on the quality of the comment. For example you might reason using your brain that the Earth was flat because it looks flat and the sun goes around the Earth because that's how it appears but you would be wrong. "how can seven or more billion humans and their technology not influence the globe's climate habits?" - The globe does not have climate "habits". The climate has varied on our earth since its creation. As to how "seven or more billion humans and their technology not influence the globe's climate" – I leave the research to you on the possible ways. "Is it not enough to measure and compare the CO2 figures, alone?" – No. CO2 figures cannot explain climate change or global warming. The Earth has been warming since the last ice age. Climate evidence shows there has been no lock-step co-relation between CO2 figures and global warming. "Not enough that thousands of scientists come up with the very same warnings?" – No. One well reasoned argument based on evidence is enough to blow away "the very same warnings" of "thousands of scientists". The retreat of the glaciers has also been going on since the retreat of the ice-age barring a small break during the "mini-iceage". The retreat of the snows of Kilimanjaro cited by Al Gore as evidence of global warming is one of his many lies in his "Inconvenient Truth" for which he was rewarded with the Nobel Peace Prize. The temperatures near the summit never exceed 0. It is due to inadequate precipitation, which may or may not be due to global warming, we just do not know. What "animal insctict" "just in case" measures are you suggesting? I may remind you that humans have been more successful at surviving than most animals.
In the beginning of the article an incorrect assertion was mentioned about Tibet as the "Earth's largest store of ice" after the Arctic and Antarctic, and now it has been quoted quite often in the press. Tibet cannot be characterized this way; not in terms of the total area of glaciation, nor in terms of ice volume. The record should be corrected to include the following facts: The largest stores of ice on Earth after the Arctic and Antarctic by total area covered with ice are the American Cordillera (123,689 km2), the Himalayas (33,050 km2) or the Andes (32,300 km2); by water storage in ice - the American cordillera (24,959 km3), the Andes (5,430 km3), the Himalayas (3,500 km3), or the Karakorum (2,640 km3); for the Tibetan plateau the similar values are 30,350 km2 and 1,953 km3 accordingly [1,2]. ? Also if we talk about the total volume of ice (including the vast amount held as permafrost under the Tibetan plateau), even if the ice stored in the Tibetan permafrost is huge enough to exceed that in the American Cordillera - what about the Siberia with its glaciation and permafrost? By putting this talk in terms of total amount of ice ? only Siberian permafrost alone would dwarf that one stored in Tibet, and undoubtedly would be number one. Wouldn?t it? 1. Dolgushin, L. D., 2000. Modern glaciation on-land. Data of Glaciological Studies, vol. 88, Institute of Geography of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Glaciological Association, Moscow, Russia, pp. 157-208 (In Russian with English summary). 2. Popovnin, V. V., 2006. Recent evolution of the Earth glaciers, in Recent Global Changes of the Natural Environment, vol. 1. (ed. Kasimov, N. S. and Klige, R. K.), pp. 507-577 (Scientific World, Moscow, Russia) (In Russian).