From AP, via The Washington Post:
The shrinking of Himalayan glaciers could fuel an upswing in flooding in China, India and Nepal, before creating water shortages for hundreds of millions of people across the region, a leading environmental group warned Monday.
In a report, the Switzerland-based World Wide Fund for Nature said the rate of retreat of the Asian mountain range’s glaciers is accelerating because of global warming, and has now reached 33-49 feet a year.
“The rapid melting of Himalayan glaciers will first increase the volume of water in rivers causing widespread flooding,” said Jennifer Morgan, head of WWF’s global climate change program. “But in a few decades this situation will change and the water level in rivers will decline, meaning massive economic and environmental problems for people in Western China, Nepal and Northern India.”
