These black visions of the future are not that far-fetched really, as history, even U.S. history, abounds with examples of violent conflicts over water rights.
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Scientists have found along the Tien Shan, Central Asia’s largest mountain range, glaciers have lost a staggering 27 percent of their mass and 18 percent of their area during the last 50 years. The researchers project the mountains could lose up to half their total mass over the coming decades.
Unfortunately, new academic research indicates that a water shortage is looming in Central Asia over the next few decades as the Tian Shan glacier complex is clearly melting at a rapid rate just as demand for water from several nations is ramping up.
And so, researchers suspect that by 2050, half of the remaining ice from these glaciers of the region.
Hydro power and agricultural needs in central Asia are quite urgent in certain situations, and the glacier melt phenomenon could compromise water supply in certain countries in the region. The Tien Shan mountain range stretches more than 1,500 miles (2,500km) across Central Asia and provides water to populations in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China – yet despite this information on how they will change in the long-term has been lacking.
A native rise in temperatures, maybe linked to local weather change in the north Pacific and north Atlantic oceans, means ever extra precipitation is falling as rain in summertime on the Tien Shan, eroding glacier ice, the research discovered.
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To learn more about Tian Shan glaciers, Daniel Farinotti and his colleges at German Research Center analyzed the data obtained from satellite “Gravity Recovery And Climate Experience”. The German institute declared that they have satellites monitoring the ground and what is very worrying is that the glaciers are losing a rate of 5.4 billion tons of ice each year. “During the summer, at higher elevations, it will snow”. For the millions of people depending on snow or ice melt as their water supply, this (old) news should spur them into anticipatory action. In fact, the study shows that the rise in temperature, and summer temperature in particular, is a primary control for glacier evolution in the region. Farinotti explains. “This means that an increased temperature contributes to both, increased melt and reduced glacier nourishment – and obviously, both contributes to glacier wastage”. Also, with the decline of water supply in the region, he adds that better irrigation systems are needed to be applied to be more efficient in growing crops with less water, since current irrigation practices date back to the Soviet era.
