Beijing - Mount Everest, the world's highest peak, is shrinking as a result of global warming, China's Xinhua news agency reported Wednesday.
Researchers at the state bureau of surveying and mapping discovered that the thickness of snow on Everest's peak had decreased during the last 30 years, the agency said.
"This phenomenon is linked to global warming," researchers said, without revealing exactly how much height the 8,850-metre-high mountain has lost.
China, set to become the world's main polluter by 2020, is one of the countries most interested in the international conference on global warming taking place in The Hague.
The rise in temperatures exceeds global averages in the Himalayas According to a Chinese expert, the rise in temperatures exceeds global averages in the Himalayas and on the Tibetan plateau, with a rise of 0,8 degrees since 1950 threatening to dry up rivers that supply water to much of Asia.
Continues Below ↓
Using a global positioning satellite system (GPS), researchers also discovered that Everest is moving between six and seven centimetres to the north-east every year.
This slippage is due to a tectonic fault along which the Indian sub-continent is slipping beneath Nepal and China. That same tectonic movement created the Himalayas and has been the cause of many earthquakes. - Sapa-AFP
|
StumbleUpon
Reddit
Digg
Delicious
Newsvine
Facebook
muti
Twitter
