Glaciers and mountains melting - Water shortage problem

As many of you already know glaciers, as well as mountain snow are melting at rapid level due to the global warming phenomenon. But not only are glaciers and mountains snow melting at rapid level but are melting earlier in the year than usual, and this means that large quantities of water will be long gone by the summer time, when rainfall is significantly lower.

There are many areas at risk from water shortage, and this areas include parts of the Middle East, southern Africa, the United States, South America and the Mediterranean. And there is also rapid growth of human population which would mean that there won't be even enough water to drink, let alone for its use in agriculture and water could become more precious than gold.

And glaciers, which are nature's water storage facilities are becoming smaller and smaller and in some areas where these small glaciers are main source of drinking water, they could disappear in less then 50 years if current melting levels are about to continue. Such rapid melting will not only cause water scarcity, but will also cause additional problem in form of more frequent flooding.

In some mountains snow cover has completely disappeared in some months when these mountains used to be all white not so long ago, and many basins have drained within the last couple of years. And according to Daniel Viviroli, from the University of Berne in Switzerland, nearly 40 percent of mountainous regions could be at risk, as they provide water to populations that cannot get it elsewhere.

With global warming strengthening its negative impact, and mountains and glaciers melting at faster level and earlier in the year than ever before, water may be serious problem for many parts of the world.

Water, necessity for all life on the Earth is unfortunately only one of the many problems that are carried by global warming, but definitely one of the biggest problems. All these problems need quick and global action because we simply have to cut down greenhouse gases emissions if we want to slow down the ever-increasing impact of global warming. For this we need one quick and efficient global action, much more effective than the failure called "Kyoto protocol".