KATHMANDU, March 23: Himalayan glaciers that provide a vital source of fresh water for around two billion people are melting twice as quickly as in 2000, a report warned Saturday.
The Hindu Kush-Himalayan range, which stretches from Afghanistan to Myanmar, holds the largest reserves of ice and snow outside the Arctic and Antarctica and feeds at least 10 major Asian river systems that underpin water, food and energy security across the continent.
But a third of that ice is in zones highly vulnerable to rapid warming.
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The average rate of ice loss in the region has nearly doubled from about 34 centimetres (13 inches) per year before 2000 to 73 centimetres annually since, according to two studies released by the Kathmandu?based International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD).
"This isn't a distant problem, it's a crisis unfolding in real time," ICIMOD director general Pema Gyamtsho said.
"We must scale up monitoring and invest in adaptation now."
The region has lost up to 27 metres (89 feet) of ice thickness since 1975, the studies said -- with about 12 percent of its glacier area disappearing between 1990 and 2020.
Rising temperatures mean glaciers are "unable to regain their mass," lead author Farooq Azam told AFP.
He urged cuts to black?carbon emissions, released by the burning of fossil fuels, waste and other materials, that accelerate melting.
