"Tibetan glaciers shrinking rapidly" was published online in Nature on July 15, 2012. It was composed by Jane Qiu to highlight the integrated research by ITP Prof. YAO Tandong and his colleagues on glacial mass balance on the Tibetan Plateau and surroundings.

The paper by Yao et al in Nature Climate Change was regarded the first comprehensive result of glacial mass balance monitoring in the Third Pole region, integrating their own in situ measurements with previous studies and remote sensing data in the region. The study aims to settle current disputes about glacier status on the Third Pole, where glaciers are considered to be water tower to billions of lives in Asia.