24 November 2008 [NEW DELHI] SciDev.Net - New evidence that Himalayan glaciers are shrinking has added weight to concerns that there could be severe water shortages in the region by 2030.Researchers drilling an ice core in the 6,050 metre-high Naimona'nyi glacier near Tibet were expecting to find radioactivity left by atomic tests carried out 50 years ago. Instead they found little more than background levels of radioactivity.

A new global deal on climate change will come too late to save most of the world's coral reefs, according to a US study that suggests major ecological damage to the oceans is now inevitable.