Wikipedia:Today's featured article/April 18, 2006



The retreat of glaciers since 1850 is well documented and has become an increasingly important climatic issue. Since the end of the Little Ice Age around the year 1850, glaciers worldwide have been retreating. This reduction in the mass of glaciers, referred to by glaciologists as glacier retreat, has been attributed primarily to global climate change. Mid-latitude mountain ranges such as the Himalayas, Alps, Rocky Mountains, Cascade Range, and the southern Andes, as well as isolated tropical summits such as Mount Kilimanjaro in Africa, are showing some of the largest proportionate glacial loss. The Little Ice Age was a period from about 1550 to 1850 when the world experienced relatively cool temperatures compared to the present. Subsequently, until about 1940 glaciers around the world retreated as the climate warmed. Glacial retreat slowed and even reversed, in many cases, between 1950 and 1980 as a slight global cooling occurred. However, since 1980 glacial retreat has become increasingly rapid and ubiquitous, so much so that many glaciers have disappeared and the existence of a great number of the remaining glaciers of the world is threatened. (continued...)

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