Alaska Alert: Melting Glaciers 'Raising Sea Levels'
Alaska Glaciers Raise Global Warming Fears

July 18, 2002
By Corinne Podger

American scientists have found that glaciers in Alaska are melting much faster than originally thought.

The researchers say the melt water could drive sea levels up by a centimetre every 60 years.

Monitoring the melting rate at ice caps at the north and south poles is regarded by many climate experts as evidence of global warming.

Sea levels could rise by a metre over the next century

Now, according to the study in the journal Science, the same phenomenon is occurring in Alaska.

Glaciers in Alaska and neighbouring Canada cover 90,000 square kilometres - and account for about an eighth of the Earth's mountain glaciers.

This new study used a technique called laser telemetry to measure changes in the volume of ice in the remote mountain regions over the past 40 years.

The researchers found that the glaciers have been shrinking much more quickly than previously thought - and are making a larger contribution to rising sea levels than any other glacial region in the world.

Water lost from the glaciers since the 1950s is enough to make a significant contribution to water melting from the polar caps and parts of the ice sheets at the north and south poles, say the authors.

They say their finding also adds weight to the growing body of evidence for climate change, which climate experts predict may cause sea levels to rise by up to a metre over the next century.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/americas/newsid_2137000/2137205.stm