South China's Glaciers Shrinking Rapidly - LA Times

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If you want to see a glacier melt with your bare eyes, try Yulong Snow Mountain, an 18,000-foot peak in southern China's Yunnan province. On this early December morning, the mountain is etched against the technicolor sky in shades of gray -- definitely more gray than white. Naked boulders of limestone and daubs of shrubbery protrude from the shallow snow cover.

At a scenic overlook on the way up, tourists leave their woolly hats in the tour bus when they hop out to take photographs. Even with its bald spots, the mountain is a picture postcard. But scientists worry about the way it is changing. "Look here," said Du Jiankuo, a 25-year-old Chinese scientist, raising his telephoto lens to a gray patch. "You can see where we lost another big chunk of ice."

In the study of climate change, glaciers are sometimes likened to the canaries in the coal mine, and to many observers the condition of Yulong ("Jade Dragon") mountain is troubling. He Yuanqing, one of China's leading glacier experts, found that the mountain's largest glacier, known as Baishui No. 1, has retreated about 275 yards since 1982.

"At this rate, the glacier could disappear entirely over the next few decades," said He, who heads a team of scientists who have been studying Yulong mountain since 1999 for the Cold and Arid Regions Environmental and Engineering Research Institute, a government-run think tank.

EDIT

http://www.latimes.com/news/nation-and-world/la-fg-china-glacier15-2009dec15,0,1222275.story