Himalayan Glaciers Entirely Gone by 2035?!?

photo: Barry Silver via flickr.

You've probably read claims about how the glaciers in the Himalayas are melting at such a fast pace that some of them could be entirely gone by 2035. I know I've made reference to the statement, made by Indian glaciologist Syed Hasnain and repeated around the internet, as have other posts on TreeHugger. Well, it seems according to a recent article in New Scientist by Fred Pearce, that Hasnain is backtracking on his assertion, saying that the statement was "speculative" and that he's never made that claim in any peer-reviewed journal. Yet it made it into the IPCC report of 2007:

Himalayan Glaciers Entirely Gone by 2035?!? Probably Not.