U.S. Water News Online
BOULDER, Colo. -- Despite the grossly exaggerated picture
of global warming
displayed by the new movie "Waterworld," geoscientists meeting
recently at
Boulder agreed that the effects of warming are pronounced. But even
if all
the world's glaciers were to melt, as the movie plot poses, dry land
would
only diminish a few miles from each coastline.
Nonetheless, glaciers worldwide have receded a stunning 11 percent
over the
past 150 years, and as much as 50 percent in some areas, glaciologist
Mark
Meier reported to the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics.
"In
general, glaciers have been retreating since the 1850s," said Meier,
who
conducts research at the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research at
the
University of Colorado. "The rate of retreat, the rate of thinning
of
glaciers has been almost continual since then and appears to be
accelerating
in the last few years," he added, saying that "it's just another
very
concrete piece of evidence that we're having global warming."
While the causes aren't entirely understood, "Global warming is
real," Chris
Folland of the Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction in Bracknell,
England,
told the meeting. "We have air temperatures, we have sea
temperatures, and we
have air temperatures over oceans all showing this," added
Folland.
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