Millions face glacier catastrophe

This is an article to keep on hand for those people who seem to think that global warming will be a minor irritation and perhaps it may even be rather jolly to grow vineyards in Warwickshire.

Eventually, the Himalayan glaciers will shrink so much their meltwaters will dry up, say scientists. Catastrophes like Ghat will die out. At the same time, rivers fed by these melted glaciers - such as the Indus, Yellow River and Mekong - will turn to trickles. Drinking and irrigation water will disappear. Hundreds of millions of people will be affected.

I feel the need to spell out the issue here just a bit more though. There are billions of people depending on these rivers. What will they do? They will become refugees, aid recipiants or die. Can we cope with the former, are we able to sustain the second [no so that category will become splic between the other two], and are we prepared to let the latter happen, especially with the geopolitical consequences?

Note too that it will not be isolated; we will ourselves be trying to cope with rising sea levels, unpredictable weather patterns, food scarcity and other migration...

Not a pretty site is it?
The Observer | International | Millions face glacier catastrophe:Filed in: climate_change, weather, environment, China, India, drought