In the Earth's frozen extremes, it appears, the future is now. For some time, it's been thought in climate science that the glaciers and ice caps crowning mountain ranges from the Andes to the Himalayas are the canaries of the cryosphere. Seen making dramatic retreats in the face of human-caused global warming, melting glaciers have been flagged as the most likely frozen source for the planet's rising seas. Ultimately, melting of the massive ice sheets in Antarctica and Greenland would become more influential than glaciers in pushing up sea levels, of course. But that was some time away. Or not. Go to story #1