Polar and Mountain Environments
The polar and high mountains are the planet’s barometers, telling us a great deal about the present and future effects of climate change.
Global Outlook for Ice & Snow
The “Global Outlook for Ice & Snow” is a special and unique
UNEP report launched to mark World Environment Day on 5 June 2007. Snow
and ice, with their large areas but relatively small volumes, are
inextricably connected to key interactions and responses in the global
ecosystem, including solar reflectivity and ocean circulation.
The futures of hundreds of millions of people across the world will be affected by declines in snow cover, sea ice, glaciers, permafrost and lake ice. An estimated 40 per cent of the world’s population could be affected by loss of snow and glaciers on the mountains of Asia alone, says the UNEP report.
GRID-Arendal had oversight of the publication as the editorial and production team. The “Global Outlook for Ice & Snow”, involving UNEP and a network of some 70 of the world’s best experts, has been compiled in part to support the International Polar Year (IPY) running from 2007 to 2008. Joan Eamer, programme manager of UNEP’s Key Polar Centre at GRID-Arendal, said: “The Global Outlook is unique in the sense that it brings together all the different forms of ice and snow that occur in the world—collectively known as the cryosphere-- and links them to the climate, to nature and to people both now and in the future.”
More information available on the official website: http://www.unep.org/geo/geo_ice/
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