China's mountain glaciers, concentrated on the Tibetan Plateau and adjacent
areas, are undergoing accelerated melt amid a warmer, wetter climate, the
National Climate Center said. Chinese glacier catalogs show Tibetan Plateau
glacier area has fallen about 24% over the past 60 years and roughly 7,000 small
glaciers have vanished. Rapid warming is driving accelerated cryosphere loss:
glacial lakes have increased and expanded quickly, glaciers are entering a state
of dynamic instability, and internal structural stability is expected to decline
further. The center warned glacier-related disasters are likely to become more
frequent and could cascade into larger, more damaging events.
