英文を日本語に訳してください。お願いします。
(1)に入る言葉は、(1)By the way(2)By contrast(3)By all means(4)By coincidenceのどれですか？
People who are concerned about climate change tend to worry about what would happen if the Antarctic ice sheet or the glaciers of Greenland were to melt. And, as most experts agree, these ice sheets are so huge that if they melt, it would mean major environmental damage caused by sea level rise and other effects. (1), the rest of the world`s glaciers contain less water and their disappearance would be a regional rather than a global disaster.
If the Earth is losing its glaciers, the place where it matters most is in the Himalayas. The Himalayas are a grand mountain chain 2500km long. They contain the world`s highest mountains including all fourteen that are more than 8000m high.
Because giant glaciers surround all the major Himalayan mountains, their melting would greatly influence the Earth`s climate. It is not likely that all this ice is going to disappear in the next few decades. But there is every chance that these glaciers will go on becoming smaller at a far faster rate than they have in recent centuries.
Scientists supported by the British government have looked at what this might mean for the Himalayas area. It turns out that the Indus, the major river of Pakistan and of which the Himalayas are the source, could carry anything from 14 to 90 percent more water in the next few decades. This would mean terrible increases in flooding and erosion. But once a great enough percentage of the glaciers has melted, the amount of water in the river would fall by 30 to 90 percent over the end of the century. As this water is the basis of all life and agriculture in Pakistan, the effects hardly need explanation.
If the planet continues to warm, there could be big shifts in the environment. Small glaciers would simply disappear and larger ones would retreat. There are signs that this is already happening.
