figures on glaciers / global warming

- * average yearly retreat (vanishing) of Himalayan glaciers: 2006: 30 metres --    1935-1999: 18 metres -- 1842-1935: 7 metres [DNA Jan 07]  - * average decrease of glacier thickness (of 30 glaciers monitored by WGMS) in    2005: 66 cm (WGMS: Swiss based World Glacier Monitoring Service) [DNA Jan 07]  - * Himalayan glaciers and years in which they are to vanish due to global    warming: Gangotri, Miyer, Mlion, Janapa to vanish by 2030-2050 [TNJ Jan 07]  - * number of people directly affected if above glaciers were to melt: 1.5 billion    [TNJ Jan 07]  - * length of India's largestglacier, Gangotri: 2006: less than 20km -- 1930: 25km    [DNA Jan 07]  - * rate in which India's largest glacier, Gangotri, melts: 28.1 metres per year    [TNJ Jan 07]  - * year in which Himalayan glacier Gangotri will disappear: 2050, if glacier    melt continues at same rate [TNJ Jan 07]  - * distance that Siachen glacier retreated between 1990 and 2001: 578 metres    [TNJ Jan 07]  - * average yearly melt of Siachen glacier between 1990 and 2001: 52 metres    [TNJ Jan 07]