Glaciers Are Retreating. Millions Rely on Their Water

On a summer day in the mountains high above Almarty, Kasakhstan’s large city, the Tuyuksu glacier is melting like mad, Rivulets of water streaming down the glacier’s thin leading edge.

Glaciers are retreating and millions rely on them for water.

As she has for nearly two decades, Maria Shahgedanova, a glaciologist at the University of Reading in England has come to check on the Tuyuksu. One of the longest studies glaciers anywhere, the Tuyuksu helps gauge the impact of climate change on the world’s ice.

With colleagues from the Kazakhstan Institute of Geography, Dr. Shahgedanova has made the slow trip from Almarty, 15 miles to the north and nearly two miles below, lumbering up a steep, rutted mountain road in a giant Russian utility vehicle.

Read the story from The New York Times by Henry Fountain and Ben C. Soloman - “Glaciers Are Retreating. Millions Rely on Their Water.”