Chinese geologists have warned that glaciers in Tibet and the neighbouring province of Qinghai are shrinking rapidly.
They say the loss of ice threatens the economies of China and other countries whose rivers are fed by the glaciers.
The high plateau of Tibet and Qinghai province has tens of thousands of glaciers, storing vast quantities of water.
As they melt each summer, they feed rivers that give life to cities as far away as Bangladesh and Vietnam.
But winter snow is failing to make up for summer melting, and a layer of ice as big as central Beijing is lost each year.
Now the Chinese geological survey has warned that global warming is speeding up the loss.
By 2050, 30 per cent of the plateau’s ice could be gone, meaning dangerously dry summers downstream.
