posted 06-06-2002 09:15 PM               

Ice around Everest is melting away

Rising temperatures and melting glaciers have shrunk ice fields and turned ponds into lakes which may burst their banks within a decade.

GENEVA - The amount of ice on and around the world's highest mountain has declined spectacularly, providing startling evidence of the damage caused by global warming, a group of mountaineers said.

The group has returned from a special UN-backed expedition to the Himalayas.

'Everywhere the impact of climate change was there to see, there is no doubt that the climate in the Himalayan ranges has become warmer and wetter,' Mr Roger Payne of the International Mountaineering and Climbing Federation (UIAA), said on returning from the region around Mount Everest in Nepal.

The expedition to the 6,189 m high Island Peak, only 8 km south of Mount Everest, was part of an attempt by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) to mobilise climbers to make a practical contribution to observations on climate change.

Mr Payne, who headed the group, said the mountain received its name from the first climbers to ascend the mountain in 1953 - the same year as Sir Edmund Hillary conquered Everest - because it stood out as a peak emerging from an island of ice.

'You go to that mountain now, you do not see it rising as an island in a sea of ice, you see rising out of an island of rubble,' he told reporters.

He noted that a few ponds which used to surround Island Peak had grown into a 2-km long, 100-m deep lake.

Local people were also aware of the changes in recent years, Mr Payne said, with many expressing concern about the lack of snow, shrinking glaciers and the growth of mountain lakes retained by fragile natural barriers.

The ice fields that had helped Hillary and Sherpa Tensing on the first ascent of Everest have also shrunk, moving back by about 6 km.

'Back in 1953 when Hillary and Tensing set off to climb Everest, they stepped out of base camp and straight onto the ice,' Mr Payne said.

'You would now have to walk for more than two hours to get onto the ice,' he added.

The expedition of six climbers gathered their observations from comparisons with old photographs from the pioneering days of the conquest of the Himalayas and from accounts by local Nepalese.

UNEP released a scientific study in April which found that lakes in Bhutan and Nepal were filling rapidly because of rising temperatures and melting glaciers.

posted 06-09-2002 10:07 PM               

MADISON, Wis. (Reuters) - Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore (news - web sites) on Saturday criticized President Bush (news - web sites) for refusing to accept a federal agency report that blames humans for global warming (news - web sites).

The recently released Environmental Protection Agency (news - web sites) (EPA) report appeared to back the view of many scientists who believe global warming is caused mainly by emissions from automobiles, power plants, and oil refineries.

Bush appeared to dismiss the report, calling it a product of bureaucracy, and said he would continue to press for voluntary efforts and financial incentives for U.S. companies to reduce emissions.

Gore, the 2000 Democratic presidential nominee and a champion of environmental protection as vice president, said the president had succumbed to powerful interests that run the Republican Party and rejected the report rather than accept it and do something about global warming.

"That's not a moral choice," Gore said. "I don't want to hear from this bunch: 'We didn't know'."

Gore has questioned Bush's policies on the economy, environment and values in previous appearances since emerging from a year of political seclusion in February. He has not said whether he will make another run at the White House in 2004.

The Bush administration has put "lobbyists for the polluters in charge of policies" and put "the hungriest fox they could find" to guard government henhouses, Gore said.

The Bush administration had repeatedly emphasized that there was not enough scientific evidence to link global warming to industrial emissions and has refused to sign the Kyoto Treaty, which seeks to reduce worldwide atmospheric emissions.

The State Department has submitted the report by the EPA, whose top officials are appointed by the president, to the United Nations (news - web sites).

Republicans want to turn their back on the environment rather than embrace new technologies that can clean up the environment and create jobs, Gore said.

"It is our moral responsibility and it's our economic opportunity,' Gore said.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=585&ncid=753&e =7&u=/nm/20020608/sc_nm/environment_bush_gore_dc_2