Pachauri warns melting of glaciers could adversely impact river systems

New Delhi, Apr 6 (ANI): United Nation's climate panel chief and Nobel laureate R K Pachauri has said melting glaciers could adversely impact river systems in India.

"If you look at the impact of melting of glaciers, it is not only reduction in supply in the river system but this will also have an impact on recharge of ground water because rivers plays an extremely important function in recharging ground water resources. As a result of excessive exploitation of ground water, we already have a major decline in the water table in several parts of the country. Climate change is going to add to this problem," Pachauri said.

The UN Climate Panel projects that world atmospheric temperature will rise by between 1.8 and 4.0 degrees Celsius because of emissions of greenhouse gases that could bring floods, droughts, heat waves and more powerful storms.

As glaciers and ice sheets melt, they can raise overall ocean levels and swamp low-lying areas.

One Antarctic ice shelf has quickly vanished, another is disappearing and glaciers are melting faster than anyone thought due to climate change, U.S. and British Government researchers reported on Friday.

They said the Wordie Ice Shelf, which had been disintegrating since the 1960s, is gone and the northern part of the Larsen Ice Shelf no longer exists.

More than 3,200 square miles have broken off from the Larsen shelf since 1986.

In another report published in the journal Geophysical Letters, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reports that ice is melting much more rapidly than expected in the Arctic as well, based on new computer analyses and recent ice measurements. (ANI)