Released on the eve of Tuesday's Environment Day, the report was compiled by UNEP and a network of about 70 world experts.

It "underlines that the fate of the world's snowy and icy plates in a climatically challenged world should be cause for concern in every ministry, boardroom and living room across the world," said UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner, speaking at celebrations in Tromso, Norway, to mark World Environment Day.

"Indeed the findings are as relevant to people living in the tropics and temperate climes -- and in cities from Berlin to Brasilia and Beijing to Boston -- as they are for the people living in Arctic or in ice-capped mountain regions."

Melting snow and glaciers on the mountains of Asia alone could affect approximately 40 percent of the planet's population, the report said.

The melting is also likely to increase hazards including avalanches and floods from the buildup of potentially unstable glacial lakes, UNEP said. These can burst their ice and soil dams, sending walls of water down valleys at speeds close to that of a modern anti-tank missile.

Similar challenges face people from the Alps to the Andes and the Pyrenees, said the report.

Additionally, as ice and snow melt, avalanches and floods from the buildup of potentially unstable glacial lakes are possible. As ice thaws, there is also the danger of higher levels of methane, a gas that contributes to global warming, being released.

New estimates indicate the quantities of methane emerging from so-called thermokast lakes is up to five times higher than had previously been supposed, the agency said.

Rising temperatures, coupled with the thawing of frozen land or "permafrost," are leading to the creation of new and expansion of existing lakes in places such as Siberia, which are releasing bubbles of methane estimated to be 43,000 years old.

Less snow and sea ice means more of the sun's heat will be absorbed by land and polar oceans, which in turn will speed up global warming.

"Melting Ice -- a Hot Topic" was adopted as a slogan from the International Polar Year, which runs from this year to next, said UNEP, pointing out some communities are already adapting to climate change.

Hunters in parts of Greenland are abandoning traditional dog sleds in favor of skiffs as a result of less predictable sea ice.

Part of a key railway line in China, over the Tibet Plateau, was built on permafrost but was designed with special cooling technology to reduce the risks of sinking into thawing earth.

The UNEP report acknowledges many indigenous peoples lack the financial resources and technology needed to adapt and many parts of the world remain ill-prepared for the likely pace of climatic change.

"The report comes in 2007, a year in which climate change came in from the cold in terms of science, likely impacts and costs. Indeed the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has concluded that the bill may be less than 0.1 per cent of global GDP a year," Steiner said.

"Overcoming the climate change challenge is the bargain of the century," he added. " is universal political action. Today's report should empower the public to take their leaders to task ... encourage them to ask how much hotter it has to get" before they take action to reduce emissions.

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U.N. Environment Program
Beyond the Ice Age