Global Outlook for Ice & Snow

www.unep.org United Nations Environment Programme P.O.Box 30552 - 00100 Nairobi, Kenya

Tel.: +254 20 762 1234 Fax: +254 20 762 3927 e-mail: uneppub@unep.org www.unep.org

ISBN: 978-92-807-2799-9 Job No: DEW/0924/NA

This book is about ice and snow in polar and mountain regions of the world. It covers all parts of the cryosphere (the world of ice): snow, land ice, sea ice, river and lake ice, and frozen ground. It presents information on the trends in ice and snow, the outlook for this century and beyond, and the consequences to ecosystems and human well-being of changes in ice and snow. But this book is also about sea-level rise and the islands in the South Pa- cific, and about shrinking glaciers and the great rivers of Asia. It is about theway the Earth’s climate is changing and causing ice and snow tomelt – and how melting ice and snow are changing the Earth’s climate.

The Global Outlook for Ice and Snow was pre- pared by the United Nations Environment Pro- gramme and written by more than 70 scientists from around the world. It brings together the lat- est findings and the latest thinking on ice and snow and climate change. The Global Outlook for Ice and Snow is an official project of the International Polar Year 2007-2008 and captures the state of knowledge on polar ice and snow at the outset of this ambitious two- year campaign of international research.