Extinction .in

Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo have been home to tropical glaciers for tens of thousands of years.

These glaciers currently are receeding at a rate of between 30 meters per year to 50 meters per year.

The largest "glacier" is now about 1 square kilometer, in 2012.

The rate at which these glaciers are disappearing is increasing, and they will soon be extinct in our lifetime, probably by 2020.

Gloabal warming, caused by pollution and the burning of fossil fuels is the cause of this extinction. Unlike animals, however, glaciers can return when the climate cools down again, if we can reduce our population, pollution, and stop burning fossil fuels and modify our energy system. So perhaps extinction is too strong a word to use. It is clear, however that even if we make the necessary changes to our lifestyle and society, they won't come back for thousands of years at the earliest. That is "extinct" for all practical purposes, for us and hundreds of generations of our descendants. And the dissapearance of these last remaining tropical glaciers all over the earth will cause species to go extinct, and cause rivers to dry up and life to become much more difficult for both humans and animals wherever the glaciers are found.