Includes bibliographical references and index.

"Glaciers is a volume about the role glaciers play in our daily lives (often without us knowing), the risks posed to glaciers from natural and anthropogenic activity (including climate change and industrial pollution), and policies and practices that should be employed to protect this fundamental hydrological reserve"--,Provided by publisher.

Though not traditionally thought of as strategic natural resources, glaciers are a crucial part of our global ecosystem, playing a fundamental role in the sustaining of life around the world. Comprising three quarters of the world's freshwater, they supply a steady flow of water for agriculture, livestock, industry and human consumption. Without them, many of the planet's rivers would run dry shortly after the winter snow-melt. A single mid-sized glacier in high mountain environments of places like California, Argentina, India, Kyrgyzstan, or Chile can provide an entire community with a sustained flow of drinking water for generations. On the other hand, when global temperatures rise, not only does glacier ice wither away into the oceans and cease to act as water reservoirs, but these massive ice bodies can become highly unstable and collapse, resulting in severe natural events like glacier tsunamis. But despite their critical role in environmental sustainability, glaciers often exist well outside our environmental consciousness, and they are mostly unprotected from atmospheric impacts of global warming, from soot deriving from transportation emissions, or from industrial activity such as mining. This book is a scientific, cultural, and political examination of the cryosphere--the earth's ice--and the environmental policies that are slowly emerging to protect it. It is a quest to educate general society about the basic science behind glaciers, outline current and future risks to their preservation, and reveal the intriguing politics behind glacier melting debates over policies and laws to protect the resource. The author also makes suggestions on what can be done to preserve these crucial sources of fresh water, from both a scientific and policymaking standpoint.--Adapted from dust jacket.

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