China remote glaciers melt at 'shocking' pace | The Business Standard
Skip to main content
  • Latest
  • Economy
    • Banking
    • Stocks
    • Industry
    • Analysis
    • Bazaar
    • RMG
    • Corporates
    • Aviation
  • Videos
    • TBS Today
    • TBS Stories
    • TBS World
    • News of the day
    • TBS Programs
    • Podcast
    • Editor's Pick
  • World+Biz
  • Features
    • Panorama
    • The Big Picture
    • Pursuit
    • Habitat
    • Thoughts
    • Splash
    • Mode
    • Tech
    • Explorer
    • Brands
    • In Focus
    • Book Review
    • Earth
    • Food
    • Luxury
    • Wheels
  • Subscribe
    • Epaper
    • GOVT. Ad
  • More
    • Sports
    • TBS Graduates
    • Bangladesh
    • Supplement
    • Infograph
    • Archive
    • Gallery
    • Long Read
    • Interviews
    • Offbeat
    • Magazine
    • Climate Change
    • Health
    • Cartoons
  • বাংলা
The Business Standard

Thursday
July 10, 2025

Sign In
Subscribe
  • Latest
  • Economy
    • Banking
    • Stocks
    • Industry
    • Analysis
    • Bazaar
    • RMG
    • Corporates
    • Aviation
  • Videos
    • TBS Today
    • TBS Stories
    • TBS World
    • News of the day
    • TBS Programs
    • Podcast
    • Editor's Pick
  • World+Biz
  • Features
    • Panorama
    • The Big Picture
    • Pursuit
    • Habitat
    • Thoughts
    • Splash
    • Mode
    • Tech
    • Explorer
    • Brands
    • In Focus
    • Book Review
    • Earth
    • Food
    • Luxury
    • Wheels
  • Subscribe
    • Epaper
    • GOVT. Ad
  • More
    • Sports
    • TBS Graduates
    • Bangladesh
    • Supplement
    • Infograph
    • Archive
    • Gallery
    • Long Read
    • Interviews
    • Offbeat
    • Magazine
    • Climate Change
    • Health
    • Cartoons
  • বাংলা
THURSDAY, JULY 10, 2025
China remote glaciers melt at 'shocking' pace

Environment

Reuters
10 November, 2020, 12:15 pm
Last modified: 10 November, 2020, 12:26 pm

Related News

  • Chinese investors want better infrastructure in Bangladesh to boost joint ventures
  • Beijing seeks to fast-track investment treaty with Dhaka, no matter who leads: Ambassador Yao
  • China-Bangladesh-Pakistan co-op open and transparent, not targeting any third country: Yao Wen
  • Australia's Albanese confirms China visit as Beijing eyes trade deal review
  • EU holds back on signing climate action pledge with China: FT

China remote glaciers melt at 'shocking' pace

The largest glacier in the 800-km (500-mile) mountain chain on the arid northeastern edge of the Tibetan plateau has retreated about 450 metres since the 1950s

Reuters
10 November, 2020, 12:15 pm
Last modified: 10 November, 2020, 12:26 pm
Meltwater flows over the Laohugou No. 12 glacier in the Qilian mountains, Subei Mongol Autonomous County in Gansu province, China, September 27, 2020. REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins
Meltwater flows over the Laohugou No. 12 glacier in the Qilian mountains, Subei Mongol Autonomous County in Gansu province, China, September 27, 2020. REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins

Glaciers in China's bleak Qilian mountains are disappearing at a shocking rate as global warming brings unpredictable change and raises the prospect of crippling, long-term water shortages, scientists say.

The largest glacier in the 800-km (500-mile) mountain chain on the arid northeastern edge of the Tibetan plateau has retreated about 450 metres since the 1950s, when researchers set up China's first monitoring station to study it.

The 20-square kilometre glacier, known as Laohugou No. 12, is criss-crossed by rivulets of water down its craggy, grit-blown surface. It has shrunk by about 7% since measurements began, with melting accelerating in recent years, scientists say.

The Business Standard Google News Keep updated, follow The Business Standard's Google news channel

Equally alarming is the loss of thickness, with about 13 metres (42 feet) of ice disappearing as temperatures have risen, said Qin Xiang, the director at the monitoring station.

"The speed that this glacier has been shrinking is really shocking," Qin told Reuters on a recent visit to the spartan station in a frozen, treeless world, where he and a small team of researchers track the changes.

The Tibetan plateau is known as the world's Third Pole for the amount of ice long locked in the high-altitude wilderness.

But since the 1950s, average temperatures in the area have risen about 1.5 Celsius, Qin said, and with no sign of an end to warming, the outlook is grim for the 2,684 glaciers in the Qilian range.

Across the mountains, glacier retreat was 50% faster in 1990-2010 than it was from 1956 to 1990, data from the China Academy of Sciences shows.

Meltwater drips from an icicle on the Laohugou No. 12 glacier in the Qilian mountains, Subei Mongol Autonomous County in Gansu province, China, September 26, 2020. REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins
Meltwater drips from an icicle on the Laohugou No. 12 glacier in the Qilian mountains, Subei Mongol Autonomous County in Gansu province, China, September 26, 2020. REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins

"When I first came here in 2005, the glacier was around that point there where the river bends," Qin said, pointing to where the rock-strewn slopes of the Laohugou valley channel the winding river to lower ground.

The flow of water in a stream near the terminus of the Laohugou No. 12 runoff is about double what it was 60 years ago, Qin said.

Further downstream, near Dunhuang, once a major junction on the ancient Silk Road, water flowing out of the mountains has formed a lake in the desert for the first time in 300 years, state media reported.

Dangerous Change

Global warming is also blamed for changes in the weather that have brought other unpredictable conditions.

Snowfall and rain has at times been much less than normal, so even though the melting glaciers have brought more runoff, farmers downstream can still face water shortages for their crops of onions and corn and for their animals.

Large sections of the Shule river, on the outskirts of Dunhuang, were either dry or reduced to murky patches of pool, isolated in desert scrub when Reuters visited in September.

The new fluctuations also bring danger.

"Across the region, glacial melt water is pooling into lakes and causing devastating floods," said Greenpeace East Asia climate and energy campaigner Liu Junyan.

"In spring, we're seeing increased flooding, and then when water is needed most for irrigation later in the summer, we're seeing shortages."

Qin Xiang director of the Qilian Shan Station of Glaciology and Ecologic Environment, part of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Jin Zizhen, 27, a PhD student in glacial hydrology, place a measuring pole in the ice near the edge of the Laohugou No. 12 glacier in the Qilian mountains, Subei Mongol Autonomous County in Gansu province, China September 26, 2020. REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins
Qin Xiang director of the Qilian Shan Station of Glaciology and Ecologic Environment, part of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Jin Zizhen, 27, a PhD student in glacial hydrology, place a measuring pole in the ice near the edge of the Laohugou No. 12 glacier in the Qilian mountains, Subei Mongol Autonomous County in Gansu province, China September 26, 2020. REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins

For Gu Jianwei, 35, a vegetable farmer on the outskirts of the small city of Jiuquan, the changes in the weather have meant meagre water for his cauliflowers this year.

Gu said he had been able to water his crop just twice over two crucial summer months, holding up a small cauliflower head that he said was just a fraction of the normal weight.

The melting in the mountains could peak within a decade, after which snow melt would sharply decrease due to the smaller, fewer glaciers, China Academy of Sciences expert Shen Yongping said. That could bring water crises, he warned.

The changes in Qilian reflect melting trends in other parts of the Tibetan plateau, the source of the Yangtze and other great Asian rivers, scientists say.

"Those glaciers are monitoring atmospheric warming trends that apply to nearby glaciated mountain chains that contribute runoff to the upper Yellow and Yangtze Rivers," said Aaron Putnam, associate professor of earth sciences at the University of Maine.

The evidence of the withering ice is all too clear for student researcher Jin Zizhen, out under a deep-blue sky checking his instruments in the glare of Laohugou No. 12.

"It's something I've been able to see with my own eyes."

Top News / World+Biz

China / glacier melt / glacier / Global warming / Qilian mountains

Comments

While most comments will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive, moderation decisions are subjective. Published comments are readers’ own views and The Business Standard does not endorse any of the readers’ comments.

Top Stories

  • Representational image. Photo: Collected
    35% tariff: Bangladesh, US 'agree on most issues' as first day of talks ends
  • File photo of containers at Chattogram port/TBS
    US buyers push Bangladeshi exporters to share extra tariff costs
  • CA orders law enforcers to complete all election preparations by December
    CA orders law enforcers to complete all election preparations by December

MOST VIEWED

  • File Photo: Rajib Dhar/TBS
    Bangladesh faces economic impact as US introduces 35% tariff on exports
  • None saw it coming: What went wrong in Bangladesh’s tariff negotiation with US 
    None saw it coming: What went wrong in Bangladesh’s tariff negotiation with US 
  • Clashes took place between police and protesters in Sylhet on 2 August. Photo: TBS
    Hasina authorised deadly crackdown on protesters during 2024 July uprising, BBC verifies leaked audio
  • Bangladesh Bank Governor Ahsan H Mansur. TBS Sketch
    BB governor asks banks to create forced loans for unpaid import LCs
  • Representational image. Photo: TBS
    35% US tariff to be disastrous for Bangladesh's exports, say economists and exporters
  • Trump's 35% tariff zaps Bangladesh's $8.4 billion export lifeline
    Trump's 35% tariff zaps Bangladesh's $8.4 billion export lifeline

Related News

  • Chinese investors want better infrastructure in Bangladesh to boost joint ventures
  • Beijing seeks to fast-track investment treaty with Dhaka, no matter who leads: Ambassador Yao
  • China-Bangladesh-Pakistan co-op open and transparent, not targeting any third country: Yao Wen
  • Australia's Albanese confirms China visit as Beijing eyes trade deal review
  • EU holds back on signing climate action pledge with China: FT

Features

Women are forced to fish in saline waters every day, risking their health to provide for their families. Photo: TBS

How Mongla’s women are bearing the brunt of rising salinity

13h | Panorama
Dr Mostafa Abid Khan. Sketch: TBS

Actual impact will depend on how US retailers respond: Mostafa Abid Khan

1d | Economy
Thousands gather to form Bangla Blockade in mass show of support. Photo: TBS

Rebranding rebellion: Why ‘Bangla Blockade’ struck a chord

2d | Panorama
The Mitsubishi Xpander is built with families in mind, ready to handle the daily carpool, grocery runs, weekend getaways, and everything in between. PHOTO: Akif Hamid

Now made-in-Bangladesh: 2025 Mitsubishi Xpander

3d | Wheels

More Videos from TBS

Leaked audio: Jinping thought Trump was crazy

Leaked audio: Jinping thought Trump was crazy

10h | TBS World
What can be done to counter the impact of US tariffs?

What can be done to counter the impact of US tariffs?

11h | Podcast
Elections can be held before Ramadan if preparations are complete: Press Secretary

Elections can be held before Ramadan if preparations are complete: Press Secretary

11h | TBS Today
What Elon Musk Gets Wrong About Our Broken Political System

What Elon Musk Gets Wrong About Our Broken Political System

43m | Others
EMAIL US
contact@tbsnews.net
FOLLOW US
WHATSAPP
+880 1847416158
The Business Standard
  • About Us
  • Contact us
  • Sitemap
  • Advertisement
  • Privacy Policy
  • Comment Policy
Copyright © 2025
The Business Standard All rights reserved
Technical Partner: RSI Lab

Contact Us

The Business Standard

Main Office -4/A, Eskaton Garden, Dhaka- 1000

Phone: +8801847 416158 - 59

Send Opinion articles to - oped.tbs@gmail.com

For advertisement- sales@tbsnews.net