I'll admit I didn't read the article, but I don't understand how this is supposed to work.
If glaciers are responsible for the water supply, then if they don't melt, would these regions end up with no water at all?
Shouldn't these areas be depending on current precipitation for their water?

Or to put it another way, if these regions are depending on glacier melt from water accumulated hundreds of thousands of years ago, aren't they going to be screwed sooner or later? Either the melt isn't high enough and they don't have enough water, or the melt is too high and they'll run out later.

It would seem like the only sustainable situation would be if the melt equals new formation due to precipitation.

X-Com! Star Control! Especially given that the most recent sequels were horrible.