US scientist in race to learn from Indonesia’s dying glacier

The only glacier in the western Pacific could disappear in less than five years, taking with it vital clues about the earth’s changing climate, a US scientist said Friday. Ohio State University Professor Lonnie Thompson has just completed what he calls a “salvage mission” to extract ice cores from the glacier on Punjak Jaya, which soars above the tropical, reef-fringed waters of eastern Indonesia. The ice core samples he collected after his 13-day trip to the Papuan central highlands are set to be shipped back to Chicago on Wednesday for further analysis. But Thompson said one thing is clear: the glacier is dying.

http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/us-scientist-in-race-to-learn-from-indonesias-dying-glacier-2018033.html