'Abrupt climate shift' in last 50 years

'Abrupt climate shift' in last 50 years

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Tuesday, 27, Jun 2006 05:48

A much warmer world has emerged in the past 50 years due to a climate shift, new research has found.

Glaciologists combined and compared ancient climate records from the South American Andes and the Asian Himalayas and have argued that the results prove a major climate shift to a much warmer world has occurred.

The researchers from the Ohio State University's Byrd polar research centre and three other universities have warned that most of the world's glaciers and ice caps are rapidly retreating and that most of the high-altitude glaciers in tropical regions will disappear in the near future.

Increasing temperatures are thought to be the most likely explanation behind the decrease in the glaciers.

Lonnie Thompson, professor of geological sciences at Ohio State, warned: "Approximately 70 per cent of the world's population now lives in the tropics so when climate changes there, the impacts are likely to be enormous."

Research partner Ellen Mosley-Thompson added that the past 50 years have been "unusually warm" and that things are "dramatically changing".

"The take-home message is that global climate can change abruptly, and with 6.5 billion people inhabiting the planet, that's serious," she said.