Climate Change&Global Warming | Sidang kemuncak iklim global, 12 Disember depan

[InstaForexRebat]

Gambar yang diperoleh dari NASA menunjukkan rekahan ais di Larsen C, Antartika. - Agensi

PARIS 6 Julai - Imej satelit semalam mendedahkan gambar bongkah ais yang mempunyai saiz lebih besar daripada Delaware di Amerika Syarikat mulai merekah di Antartik Barat.

Agensi Angkasa Eropah (ESA) memaklumkan, bongkah berkenaan dari kawasan Larsen C, salah satu bongkah ais terbesar yang pernah dicatatkan dalam sejarah dijangka akan hanyut sekitar 6,600 kilometer persegi.

Kedalaman bongkah itu di bawah paras laut mencapai 210 meter atau 60 tingkat.

"Rekahan ais itu kini berukuran 200 kilometer panjang dan hanya lima kilometer antara hujung rekahan dengan lautan," ujar ESA dalam satu kenyataan. - AFP

Sumber: © Utusan Melayu (M) Bhd

Aisberg Gergasi Terpisah Di Antartika

LONDON: Salah satu aisberg terbesar dalam sejarah terpisah dari glasier Antartika.

Keadaan itu menjejaskan kapal-kapal di sekitar benua itu.

Aisberg seberat satu trilion tan yang berukuran 5,800 kilometer persegi terpisah dari pentas ais Larsen C di Antartika antara 10 dan 12 Julai lalu.

Perkara itu disahkan saintis di Universiti Swansea dan Penyelidikan Antartik British.

Aisberg itu sudah menunjukkan tanda-tanda untuk terpisah selama beberapa bulan.

Sepanjang musim sejuk di Antartik, saintis memantau kejadian itu menggunakan satelit Agensi Angkasa Eropah.

“Aisberg itu adalah yang terbesar pernah direkodkan dan keadaannya pada masa depan sukar dijangka.

“Mungkin ia akan kekal begitu tetapi besar kemungkinan ia akan terpisah menjadi ketulan ais. Beberapa ketulan ais akan kekal di situ berdekad-dekad lamanya, manakala sebahagian daripada aisberg itu mungkin dihanyutkan ke utara kawasan kurang sejuk," kata Adrian Luckman, seorang pensyarah di Universiti Swansea.

Luckman juga merupakan ketua penyiasat Projek MIDAS, yang ditugaskan untuk memerhatikan glasier ais itu sejak beberapa tahun lalu.

Aisberg yang terpisah itu boleh menambahkan risiko terhadap kapal-kapal yang belayar.

Pada 2009, lebih 150 penumpang dan anak kapal telah dipindahkan apabila MTV Explorer tenggelam selepas merempuh aisberg di semenanjung Antartika.

Aisberg yang dikenali sebagai A68, telah terapung sebelum terpisah, oleh itu, tiada impak besar berlaku pada aras laut.

Namun proses itu menyebabkan pentas ais Larsen C berkurang lebih 12 peratus di kawasan itu.

Pentas ais Larsen A dan B yang berada di penghujung utara, Semenanjung Antartika tiba-tiba terpisah pada 1995 dan 2002.

“Ini menyebabkan kadar kenaikan glasier di belakang pentas ais tersebut, dengan jumlah ais yang hanyut ke laut, menyumbang kepada kenaikan aras laut.

“Jika Larsen C mula terpisah, maka kita akan melihat kenaikan aras laut," kata David Vaughan, pakar glasier dan pengarah sains di Penyelidikan Antartik British.

Mstar

 

(Update 4)

Panas ekstrem yang melanda negara boleh bawa maut

KUALA LUMPUR 23 Okt. - Musim panas ekstrem yang melanda negara sejak kebelakangan ini bukan sahaja boleh memberi tekanan kepada tubuh badan tetapi juga memberi kesan kesihatan sehingga ke tapap boleh mencetuskan strok haba dan kematian.

Ketua Pengarah Kesihatan, Datuk Dr. Noor Hisham Abdullah berkata, orang ramai dinasihatkan mengambil langkah berjaga-jaga sepanjang musim panas melampau.

Jelas beliau, masalah kekurangan air dalam badan adalah yang paling bahaya semasa cuaca kering dan panas kerana perubahan kandungan garam galian dalam badan boleh menyebabkan strok haba berlaku.

“Minumlah banyak air suam, air isotonik dan hadkan aktiviti luar yang terdedah kepada cuaca panas terik semasa musim panas ini,” kata beliau dalam kenyataan yag dikeluarkan hari ini. - UTUSAN ONLINE

(Update 3)

Lubang besar pada Antartika

RAKAMAN imej lubang gergasi dikeluarkan oleh Agensi Pentadbiran Angkasa Lepas dan Aeronautik (NASA).

LONDON 13 Okt. - Para saintis menemukan sebuah lubang besar bersaiz seperti negara Belanda di Antartika baru-baru ini.

Menurut Mirror.co.uk, lubang dikenali sebagai polynya itu ditemukan menerusi rakaman imej satelit.

Istilah polynya diambil daripada bahasa Rusia untuk kawasan air terbuka yang dikelilingi oleh ais.

Para saintis berkata, itu bukan kali pertama mereka melihat lubang tersebut.

Lubang besar itu terletak di Weddell Sea, timur Semenanjung Antartika dan kali pertama muncul ialah pada tahun 1970-an dan diperhatikan selama tiga musim sejuk berturut-turut.

Kemudiannya, lubang itu tertutup selama 40 tahun dan pernah terbuka selama tiga minggu pada tahun lalu.

Ahli fizik atmosfera, Kent Moore yang juga profesor di Universiti Toronto sedang mengkaji fenomena tersebut.

“Fenomena itu seperti anda menebuk lubang di dalam ais. Kami masih cuba mencari punca berlakunya lubang itu. Jika tiada satelit, kita tidak akan tahu kewujudannya,” katanya.

Moore dan saintis lain sedang menjalankan kajian untuk memahami kewujudan polynya.

Walaupun ada yang cuba me*ngaitkannya dengan perubahan iklim, Moore menegaskan dakwaan tersebut belum dapat di*sahkan.

Sumber:Utusan

(Update 2)

Sydney, Melbourne dijangka alami suhu panas melampau

SYDNEY: Sydney dan Melbourne dijangka dilanda cuaca paling panas dalam tempoh 25 tahun lagi, walaupun Australia mampu memenuhi sasaran pemanasan global Paris.

Maklumat itu didedahkan dalam laporan terbaharu kajian yang diketuai Universiti Kebangsaan Australia (ANU) dan Pusat Kecemerlangan Sistem Sains Iklim, iaitu sebuah konsortium antarabangsa.

Konsortium itu turut menyarankan supaya bahagian lain di Australia turut bersedia bagi menghadapi kemungkinan berlaku peningkatan suhu.

Pada masa sama, ia turut menilai potensi besar suhu melampau di bawah Perjanjian Paris membabitkan 196 negara, yang menyasarkan pengurangan kenaikan suhu global kepada antara 1.5 darjah Celcius hingga dua darjah Celcius di atas tahap pra perindustrian.

"Bandar utama di Australia seperti Sydney dan Melbourne, mungkin mengalami suhu melampau sehingga 50 darjah Celsius," kata saintis iklim ANU, Sophie Lewis sambil menambah ia boleh berlaku menjelang 2040-an. - AFP

sumber :bharian

(Update 1)

Pencairan ais Greenland amat membimbangkan

PEMBIAKAN alga pada lapisan ais mampu menyebabkan pencairan ais berlaku dengan pantas.

NUUK, GREENLAND 25 Julai - Para saintis melahirkan kebimbangan serius terhadap pencairan lapisan ais di Greenland yang boleh meningkatkan paras air laut dengan pantas tanpa dijangka.

Malah kata mereka, cuaca yang panas menggalakkan pertumbuhan alga dan menyebabkan permukaan ais berwarna gelap.

Permukaan ais yang gelap menyerap lebih banyak radiasi solar sekali gus mempercepatkan pencairan ais berbanding ais berwarna putih.

Pada masa ini lapor portal BBC, lapisan ais di Greenland menyumbang kepada pertambahan sehingga satu milimeter setahun kenaikan paras purata global lautan

Ini merupakan jumlah terbesar ais di hemisfera utara yang meliputi kawasan seluas tujuh kali ganda United Kingdom (UK) dan mencapai ketebalan tiga kilometer.

Purata paras laut di seluruh dunia akan meningkat kira-kira tujuh meter jika semua ais itu cair.

Oleh yang demikian, walaupun Greenland terletak di kawasan terpencil, pulau terbesar di dunia itu merupakan kawasan tumpuan penyelidikan yang mempunyai kaitan langsung dengan bandar-bandar pesisir utama seperti Miami, London dan Shanghai dan kawasan rendah di Bangladesh dan beberapa bahagian Britain.

Alga mula-mula muncul pada lapisan ais Greenland lebih satu abad yang lalu tetapi ketika itu potensi kesannya tidak dipedulikan sehingga berlaku keadaan sekarang.

Hanya dalam beberapa tahun kebelakangan ini para penyelidik telah mula meneroka keupayaan dan cara tumbuhan kecil mikroskopik itu boleh menjejaskan pencairan ais pada masa akan datang.

Projek penyelidikan selama lima tahun yang dikenali sebagai Black and Bloom yang dikendalikan oleh UK mengkaji spe*sies alga yang berbeza dan cara tumbuhan itu membiak.

Dapatan kajian yang diperoleh digunakan untuk mening*katkan unjuran komputer terhadap kenaikan paras laut pada masa hadapan.

Artikel Penuh: http://www.utusan.com.my/berita/lua...and-amat-membimbangkan-1.507256#ixzz4nzLZthw3
© Utusan Melayu (M) Bhd

[InstaForexRebat]

A 2,000 square mile iceberg is about to break off of Antarctica

Experts have found that only three miles of ice still connect the impending iceberg to the larger shelf.

The iceberg will reportedly contain one trillion tons of ice Getty

An enormous iceberg, over 2,000 square miles in area - or nearly the size of Delaware - is poised to detach from one of the largest floating ice shelves in Antarctica and float off in the Weddell Sea, south of the tip of South America.

Scientists have been expecting the break from the Larsen C ice shelf, monitoring the progress of a crack which extended to over 100 miles long in recent months. The latest update from scientists with NASA and the University of California, Irvine found that only three remaining miles of ice continue to connect the impending iceberg to the larger shelf.

Those parts of the iceberg that have already detached have begun to move rapidly seaward, widening the rift in recent days and leaving the remaining ice "strained near to breaking point," according to Adrian Luckman, a scientist monitoring Larsen C at Swansea University in Wales.

The expected calving event - on its own - will not affect global sea level, because the ice that has detached was already afloat in the ocean. But some scientists fear that it could hasten the destabilisation of the larger Larsen C ice shelf.

The iceberg itself will be enormous - one of the most massive ever seen from Antarctica. It will be over 600 feet thick and contain roughly one trillion tons of ice, according to an analysis by the European Space Agency and Noel Gourmelen, a scientist at the University of Edinburgh.

Scientists are divided about the impact of climate change on this particular break in Antarctica's ice shelf.

Some have contended there's little proof that the break, which will reduce the size of the Larsen C more than scientists have observed previously, reflects the advance of climate change. Ice shelves do, after all, break off sometimes.

"We do not need to press the panic button for Larsen C. Large calving events such as this are normal processes of a healthy ice sheet, ones that have occurred for decades, centuries, millennia - on cycles that are much longer than a human or satellite lifetime," Helen Amana Fricker, an Antarctic scientist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, wrote recently.

But others disagree.

"Of course this is due to climate warming in the peninsula," Eric Rignot, a NASA and University of California Irvine expert on Antarctica, said.

Antarctica has seen an increase in breaks in its ice shelves in recent years.

The Larsen A ice shelf, far closer to the northern tip of the Antarctic peninsula - and therefore, warmer latitudes - collapsed in 1995. In 2002, the same thing happened with Larsen B, its southern cousin, situated slightly closer to the South Pole.

Now, Larsen C, still further toward the south pole and subject to somewhat cooler temperatures, has seen a major break.

But there are big gaps in scientists' knowledge about what might have disturbed the Larsen C ice shelf.

Recent studies have suggested that the ice of Larsen C has begun to flow more quickly to the sea through the shelf in recent years. The ice shelf has also been thinning and its surface has been getting lower in the water, suggesting that it might be melting from below.

But Fricker presented data to suggest that the ice shelf has since begun to thicken again.

"Yes, I agree Larsen C is 'next in line' southwards after Larsen A and B," Fricker said. "However, there is actually no research showing that Larsen C is getting thinner and flowing faster. In fact, in recent years, it is the opposite."

There is a similar debate over whether this individual break will destabilise the ice shelf and lead to further disintegration.

According to Rignot, Larsen C holds back around 1 centimetre of global sea level rise in the form of glaciers feeding into the remaining ice shelf. If the ice shelf were to continue to disintegrate, this ice might flow more rapidly into the sea.

An even larger fear is the southward and poleward progression of ice shelf collapse, Rignot said, pointing out that farther south there are ice shelves that, by stabilising glaciers, are currently preventing vastly more sea level rise than Larsen C does.

Larsen C is among Antarctica's largest ice shelves but still pales in comparison to the Ross Ice Shelf and Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf. Earlier this month, scientists reported a major melt event that occurred several years ago atop the surface of the Ross Ice Shelf accompanied by at least some rainfall, which also gave them concern.

Scientists will be watching the break closely and trying to glean lessons about what to expect from other potentially vulnerable ice shelves in Antarctica.

"While it might not be caused by global warming, it's at least a natural laboratory to study how breakups will occur at other ice shelves to improve the theoretical basis for our projections of future sea level rise," said NASA's Tom Wagner, who directs the agency's polar programs.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/s...tarctica-global-warning-a7830416.html#gallery

 

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A group of emperor penguins face a crack in the sea ice, near McMurdo Station, Antarctica

Amid a flood in Islampur, Jamalpur, Bangladesh, a woman on a raft searches for somewhere dry to take shelter. Bangladesh is one of the most vulnerable places in the world to sea level rise, which is expected to make tens of millions of people homeless by 2050.​

 

[asrizuzairudin]

maldives akan tenggelam.
apa la nasig orang islam kat sana.
negara sendiri dibanjiri air laut

 

[kopirait]

yang projek UAE nak tarik iceberg tu jadi ke?

 

[tomie]

takdak apa2 kot ni
fitrah alam je

 

[InstaForexRebat]

Climate change: India can lose land without war with China and Pakistan

Multiple scientific assessments have shown that Mumbai and Kolkata may go under the water one day if sea levels rise dangerously in the next 100 years.

Given recent developments, the jury may still be out on whether Pakistan or China can pose the biggest threat to India in the future. The unholy nexus between the two may be still more alarming for experts on defence and strategic affairs as a two-front war can spell disaster for the whole of South-East Asia.

Whatever their claims might be and however serious and frequent the cases of transgression may be, the armies of both Pakistan and China, at the end of the day, maintain a status quo. They are still at the other end of the Line of Control (LoC) and the Line of Actual Control (LAC).

But there is one enemy which has already started finishing off small, but important, chunks of India’s land mass - like what a termite does to wood. This adversary is working 24X7 and knows no limit.

Given the humongous size of India, this low-intensity war carried out by climate change may look miniscule to some but is threatening the survival of lakhs of people.

Sea level rise

According to the Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), sea levels have risen on an annual average of 3.2 mm since 1993. An assessment done by the IPCC in 2013 predicted that sea levels would rise by almost a metre soon.

The retreat of glaciers in Antarctica has made the whole world stand up and take notice. Closer home, even the Himalayan glaciers have shown signs of retreating.

What India has lost already

In West Bengal, in the low-lying islands in Sundarbans, a UNESCO World Heritage site famed for mangroves and tiger habitat, soil erosion is so rampant due to sea level rise that islands are shrinking in size and two of them - Lohachara and Suparibhanga - have been occupied forever by the giant waters. The Sundarbans is now known globally as the land of vanishing islands.

A satellite data analysis by ISRO showed that just during one decade, the Sundarbans lost 9,900 hectares of its land mass.

In the neighbouring state of Assam, Majuli, one of the world’s largest river islands, is treading the same path. The Brahmaputra is swallowing the island gradually as Majuli, steeped in Vaishnavite culture, shrunk more than half from 1,256sqkm in 1891 to 502.21sqkm in 2004.

Naysayers believe the island will be lost permanently in the next 2-3 decades.

The story doesn’t end here, as in other parts of West Bengal and Assam, besides Odisha and Arunachal Pradesh, villagers living along riverbanks are steadily losing their land as rivers are swelling in some places or are changing their course, leading to permanent inundation.

What’s the next target of climate change?

Multiple scientific assessments have showed that two big Indian cities – Mumbai and Kolkata – may go under the water one day if sea levels rise dangerously in the next 100 years.

According to IPCC, Kolkata, Mumbai, Dhaka, Guangzhou and Ho Chi Minh City are the five Asian cities that will by 2070 have the largest population vulnerable to climate change-induced coastal flooding.

Sundarbans is regarded as Kolkata's only shelter against coastal ingression as the islands come in between the City of Joy and the surging Bay of Bengal.

Mumbai, on the other hand, is in the red zone simply because it is dangerously close to the sea.

A report by international body Climate Central predicts that in case of a 4 degrees Celsius rise in global temperature, 55 million people could lose their houses to the sea in India. Even if the temperature rises by 2 degrees Celsius, 20 million Indians will still become climate change refugees.

Why is climate change the gravest threat?

India hopes that the Aksai Chin region, which is now under Chinese control after the 1962 War, and Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir (PoK) will become part of its map once again, but the land mass which is lost to climate change is lost permanently to mankind.

The effects of global warming-led climate change are irreversible. Sea level rise is proving how India’s map can change without a war against China or Pakistan.

The elephant in the room may turn out to be bigger than China.

India is not alone

Islands across the world, particularly in Asia, are under high risk of submergence before the next century. Due to its sheer population, Bangladesh may have the world’s largest climate change refugees if all the negative predictions come true.

Former US President Barack Obama’s most famous quote on climate change that "no challenge poses a greater threat to future generations than climate change” highlights how global warming is of greater global concern than even terrorism or the possibility of a next world war.

The Maldives, knowing well its future, has already started building artificial floating islands in the Indian Ocean. Other nations are scouting for funds to prepare themselves for climate change.

Is there hope?

A fight against climate change would still need the help of an army. With seedlings as weapons, an army, divided into small battalions, of citizen-soldiers has to start planting trees on a war-footing to save coastlines and riverbanks.

Our war propaganda should be environment education and outperforming the Paris Climate Change agreement of limiting global warming below 2 degrees Celsius. Reduction in greenhouse gases has to be one of the biggest priorities not just for India but all nations.

Under the Paris Agreement, which the US has already backed out of under Donald Trump's leadership, 194 countries are now on board to keep the rising global temperatures "well below" 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and "endeavour to limit" them even more to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has, however, raised the bar for India when he said India will go above and beyond the 2015 Paris accord. Citing India's holy texts, Modi has said protecting "Mother Earth" was part of Indian culture.

Only if we act soon, can there be some hope.

http://www.dailyo.in/variety/climat...level-rise-paris-agreement/story/1/18254.html

 

[InstaForexRebat]

Trillion ton iceberg prepares to break off Antarctica

A chunk of ice nearly as big as Shanghai may break off of Antarctica at any moment.

The European Space Agency is using a satellite to monitor the Larsen C Ice formation. A 200 kilometer long crack in the sheet of ice has deepened and is ready to give way entirely, launching one of the largest icebergs on record into the ocean.

Researchers say it’s a result of a changing climate that is altering the polar environments.

“As you can see the glacier no longer ends in the sea, now we have beach. Twenty or 30 years ago those beaches didn’t exist, the glacier was falling directly to the sea. In other words there has been a glacial retreat, probably a consequence of the climate change and the rise of temperature in this region.”, said Rodolfo Sanchez the Director of the Argentine Antarctic Institute

The environment at the North and South poles is changing rapidly and impacting the global climate. The world’s polar ice caps are shrinking little by little. The Arctic is heating up twice as fast as the rest of the planet, with Greenland’s glaciers receding particularly quickly.

This process is speeding up, all by itself. Melting snow exposes ice underneath, which then absorbs the sun’s rays and leads to more thawing.

At the opposite end of the earth, 90 percent of the ice shelves on the Antarctic Peninsula are starting to disintegrate. Ice melt is also being observed in mountain ranges, like the Himalayas, Kilimanjaro, the Alps and Pyrenees. In the Andes, glaciers are retreating and risk disappearing altogether.

Ocean levels are rising, due to the combination of melting ice and warmer sea temperatures as warm water has a greater volume than cold water. At the current rate, scientists predict that by 2100, sea levels will rise between 26 centimeters and one meter. Islands in the Pacific or Indian Oceans, like the Maldives, will be submerged.

Densely populated, low lying coastal areas like Bangladesh, Vietnam, the Netherlands and the east coast of the United States are all under threat.

https://america.cgtn.com/2017/07/07/trillion-ton-iceberg-prepares-to-break-off-antartica

 

[InstaForexRebat]

Climate change threatens to wipe some islands off the map

A small uninhabited island that has slipped beneath the water line shows only a small pile of rocks at low tide on Majuro Atoll in the Marshall Islands on November 5, 2015. To small island nations, the United States pulling out of the Paris climate-change pact makes their future seem fragile. (Rob Griffith/AP)

To small island nations where the land juts just above the rising seas, the U.S. pulling out of the Paris climate change pact makes the future seem as fragile and built on hope as a sand castle.

Top scientists say it was already likely that Earth’s temperatures and the world’s seas will keep rising to a point where some island states may not survive the next 100 years. That likelihood increases, they say, if the United States doesn’t follow through on promised cuts in heat-trapping carbon dioxide emissions. President Trump this month said he plans to withdraw the United States from the climate deal, prompting leaders of vulnerable islands to talk about their future with a mixture of defiance, hope and resignation.

A boat lies wrecked and stuck on a sea wall after it crashed into the back of Foreign Minister Tony de Brum’s house in the Marshall Islands in November 2015. Scientists say that even with U.S. support for the agreement, it was likely that Earth’s temperatures and the world’s seas would rise to a point where some island states won’t survive 100 years. (Rob Griffith/AP)

Heine and other island leaders are putting their hope in strong pollution curbs by China, other nations, individual American states and cities, as well as improved technology. While visiting Europe, she said, “it’s all the more important that Europe takes the lead on climate change.”

The State Department said it considers engagement with other counties on climate change important and it will continue, including with small island states. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said after Trump pulled out of the agreement that the United States has cut its carbon dioxide emissions “dramatically” even before the Paris pact was reached.

When the Paris pact was being negotiated in 2015, small island nations successfully campaigned for a stricter but secondary target for limiting global heat-trapping emissions.

In 2009, world leaders adopted a goal to prevent 2 degrees Celsius (or 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) of warming since 1850 to 1900, saying 2 degrees is a dangerous level of warming. The islands’ tougher goal would try to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) since that time period.

The world has already warmed about 1 degree Celsius since then, so the islands are really trying to prevent an additional half-degree of warming Celsius (0.9 degrees Fahrenheit).

When Trump announced he would pull the United States out of the Paris treaty, scientists said that made the 2-degree goal close to unachievable and the 1.5 degree goal even more out of reach. Promised American pollution cuts were about one-fifth of the pledged global reductions hoped for in the accord.

“We are pushing the 1.5 [as a goal], but realistically I think we have passed the point that it can be achieved,” said Kenrick Leslie of the Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre.

Ahmed Sareer, the Maldives ambassador to the United Nations and chairman of the Alliance of Small Island States, said the 1.5 goal is harder to achieve without the United States but not yet impossible.

“The island spirit is to never give up,” Sareer said. “We are always a resilient people.”

“If we really push into action, we can save some [small islands], but we may not be able save all of them,” said Hans-Otto Poertner, a German scientist who chairs the climate impacts study group for the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. “The chances are even less with the U.S. pulling out of the climate agreement in Paris.”

Hilda Heine, president of the Marshall Islands (a chain of islands in the Pacific), called Trump’s announcement “deeply disappointing.”

“I cannot give up on my people and my country and my culture,” she said. “It’s very important for us to be optimistic.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/life...5875b7d1876_story.html?utm_term=.ed30c3be19dd

 

[InstaForexRebat]

Hanna Petursdottir examines a cave inside the Svinafellsjokull glacier in Iceland, which she said had been growing rapidly. Since 2000, the size of glaciers on Iceland has reduced by 12 per cent.

Floods destroyed eight bridges and ruined crops such as wheat, maize and peas in the Karimabad valley in northern Pakistan, a mountainous region with many glaciers. In many parts of the world, glaciers have been in retreat, creating dangerously large lakes that can cause devastating flooding when the banks break. Climate change can also increase rainfall in some areas, while bringing drought to others.

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