Startling new evidence of thawing of glacial ice in less than six decades, with process speeding in last ten years.
Buluus glacier, Yakutia. Picture here and all images below: Bolot Bochkarev
The findings from geographical scientist Dr Alexey Galanin show how ancient glaciers - thousands of years old - are fast disappearing in the Sakha Republic, better known as Yakutia, the largest and coldest region both in Siberia and the Russian Federation.
'Starting from 1957 year, an approximate date of the beginning of the global warming process, the height of glaciers has reduced by 70 percent, and the total area decreased by 40 per cent,' said the academic.
'During the last ten years the speed of glaciers' melting is rising to two metres a year,' he said.
The melting has brought layers of glacial ice former some 2,000 years ago to the surface, he said. Equally, there was no reverse process, where other glaciers were forming. Such fast melting may be followed by a water level increase in the rivers of the vast region, explained the expert.
But he explained: 'Climate changes are not as dangerous for the Sakha Republic as for other regions.'
Another scientist Dr Victor Shepelev emphasised that 'climate goes in cycles', predicting: 'Right now, the world goes through a phase of warming which will continue until 2017-2020, then a global cooling will come from 2050 until 2060'.
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Comments (3)
The tundra north will first moisten and flood. Soon it will dry. After 30 years the heating will be 10 degrees hotter than the 10 degrees hotter it is today. Methane seeps in the meantime will spontaneously ignite during storms and the new steppe will burn so that the fires of Baikal and the 10 million acres burned in Canada 2015, will be as nothing. Prepare to be mobile and to fight fires and then to reclaim the land which may for a time be the jewel of Europe. Prepare to farm as the seas will be devoid of life as the creatures cannot sustain metabolic acidosis.