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Jakarta, Nov 10, (AP\/PTI): From the southern border of Germany to the highest peaks in Africa, glaciers around the world have served as moneymaking tourist attractions, natural climate records for scientists and beacons of beliefs for indigenous groups.<\/p>\n
With many glaciers rapidly melting because of climate ch\u00ada\u00adn\u00adge, the disappearance of the ice sheets is sure to deal a blow to countries and commu\u00adn\u00adities that have relied on them for ge\u00adnerations \u2014 to make electrici\u00adty, to draw visitors and to up\u00adh\u00adold ancient spiritual traditions.<\/p>\n
The ice masses that formed over millennia from compac\u00adt\u00aded snow have been melting since the time of the Industrial Revolution, a process that has accelerated in recent years.<\/p>\n
The retreat can be seen in Africa, on the border of Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where the jagged peaks of the Rwenzori Moun\u00adt\u00adains jut into the sky above a jungle. The peaks once held more than 40 glaciers, but fe\u00adwer than half of them rem\u00ada\u00adi\u00adn\u00aded by 2005. Experts believe the last of the mountains\u2019 glaciers could disappear within 20 ye\u00adars. The disappearance means trouble for land-locked Uga\u00adn\u00adda, which gets nearly half of its power from hydroelect\u00adricity, including the power plants that rely on steady water flow from the Rwenzori glaciers.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat hydroelectric power runs much better on more regular flows than it does peak and troughs,\u201d said Richard Tay\u00adlor, hydrogeology profess\u00ador, University College, London.<\/p>\n
On the southern edge of Ger\u00ad\u00admany\u2019s border with Aus\u00adt\u00adria, only half a square kilometre of ice remains on five glac\u00adi\u00aders combined. Experts est\u00adi\u00adm\u00adate that is 88 per cent less than the amount of ice that existed around 1850, and that the remaining glaciers will melt in 10 to 15 years.<\/p>\n
As glaciers vanish, experts say, local ecosystems will begin to change as well\u2014 something already being studied at the Humboldt Glacier in Vene\u00adzu\u00adela, which could disappear wit\u00adhin the next two decades.<\/p>\n
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Jakarta, Nov 10, (AP\/PTI): From the southern border of Germany to the highest peaks in Africa, glaciers around the world have served as moneymaking tourist attractions, natural climate records for scientists and beacons of beliefs for indigenous groups. With many glaciers rapidly melting because of climate ch\u00ada\u00adn\u00adge, the disappearance of the ice sheets is sure […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-176483","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176483","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=176483"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176483\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=176483"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=176483"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=176483"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}