Nature Conservancy Magazine: Spring 2008 - Newsfront: Glacial Retreat

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Climate Change: A Sacred Glacier Disappears in China
The villagers on Mount Khawa Karpo in the northwest part of China’s Yunnan Province have varying explanations for why their sacred Mingyong Glacier has been disappearing before their eyes.

Interview with Barry Baker
Listen to an NPR interview with Barry Baker

View the Retreating Glacier

Nature Conservancy scientists Robert Moseley and Barry Baker have documented the rapid retreat of glaciers throughout China’s northwest Yunnan Province by positioning cameras to repeat hundreds of historical landscape photographs. Their research, which appeared in the journal Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research, found that glaciers on the Tibetan Plateau are melting because of a local temperature rise nearly double the global average since 1980.