英語聽力：自然百科 喜馬拉雅冰川融化加劇

Mount Everest looms in the distance. Its snow and ice-capped peak gleams in the sunshine. The Himalayan glacier is a fragile ecosystem, which environmentalists warn could soon disappear. Greenpeace says that as global warning increases temperatures around the world, as much as 80% of these glaciers could melt away in the next 30 years with devastating effects.

We have to take immediate actions in order to stop the current speed of retreating of the glacier, otherwise we will witness probably the biggest water shortage in human history.

These glaciers supply majority of water to China and India’s largest rivers. If the glaciers melt rapidly, the extra water flowing down the stream could cause flooding. Then with the snow and ice melted away, hundreds of millions of people who rely on the river will face droughts and water shortages.

And this is not something that only one country can accomplish. It will have to be a global action.

Increasing levels of green house gases are blamed for causing global warming. Car exhausts, industrial output and agriculture development, all contribute to the problem. But how exactly the levels can be steadied or even lowered will be hotly debated, with few countries willing to put the environment over economic interests.