Glaciers are a major source of water for people around the world. Up to 75% of all earth’s fresh water is stored as glacial ice – mostly in Antarctica and Greenland, but also in Alaska, the Himalaya and the Andes. As glaciers disappear from the Himalaya and Andes mountains, the rivers they feed via meltwater will dwindle and even dry up. Once water melts out of a glacier most of it ends up in the ocean where it is useless for drinking or irrigation. Glacial ice is not being replaced. Almost 2 billion people rely for water on glacially fed rivers in in China, India, Nepal, Bangledesh and elsewhere.