Is climate change causing Himalayan glaciers to shrink?
Glacial retreat is the most visually convincing evidence of climate change for non-specialists. Compare pictures from 50 years ago with today, you don’t need complex data. But in the Himalaya a possible secondary aspect that might have contributed to the melting of the glaciers is the Asian Brown Cloud, or particles that change the reflectivity of the glaciers. But we have very little data on that, and need more research. How does glacial retreat here compare with other mountain regions? Compared to other parts of the world, the pace of glacial retreat is slowest in the Himalaya. In the western hemisphere, the retreat rate is very high due to their climatic pattern which includes low precipitation and low humidity. The glaciers of the European Alps and the Rocky mountains of North America have lost 40 percent of their area in the last hundred years. The Himalaya is the least understood area with regard to climate change. Why is that? The elevation range in the Himalayas has no equivale
