World’s glaciers are losing record ice as global temperatures climb, U.N. says
Glaciers around the globe are disappearing faster than ever, with the last three-year period seeing the largest glacial mass loss on record, according to聽聽released on Friday.
罢丑别听9,000 gigatons of ice lost from glaciers since 1975聽are roughly聽equivalent to “an ice block the size of Germany with the thickness of 25 meters,” Michael Zemp, director of the Switzerland-based World Glacier Monitoring Service, said during a press conference聽补苍苍辞耻苍肠颈苍驳听the report at the UN headquarters in Geneva.
The dramatic ice loss, from 迟丑别听聽to 迟丑别听, from聽聽to 迟丑别听, is expected to accelerate as climate change, caused by the burning of fossil fuels, pushes global temperatures higher. This would likely exacerbate economic,聽聽and social problems across the world as sea levels rise and these key water sources dwindle.
The report coincides with a UNESCO summit in Paris marking the first World Day for Glaciers, urging global action to protect glaciers around the world.
Mr. Zemp said that five of the last six years registered the largest losses, with 驳濒补肠颈别谤蝉听losing 450 gigatons of mass in 2024 alone.
The accelerated loss has made mountain glaciers one of the largest contributors to sea level rise, putting millions at risk of聽听补苍诲听诲补尘补驳颈苍驳听飞补迟别谤听谤辞耻迟别蝉听that billions of聽辫别辞辫濒别听depend on for hydroelectric energy and agriculture.
Stefan Uhlenbrook, the director of water and cryosphere at the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), said聽迟丑补迟听about 275,000 glaciers remain globally which, along with the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets,聽comprise about 70% of the world’s freshwater.
“We need to advance our scientific knowledge, we need to advance through better observing systems, through better forecasts and聽聽for the planet and the people,” Mr. Uhlenbrook said.
DANGERS AND DEITIES
About 1.1 billion people live in mountain communities, which suffer 迟丑别听聽impacts of glacier loss, due to聽the increasing risks with聽natural hazards and unreliable 飞补迟别谤听sources. The remote locations and difficult terrains also make cheap fixes difficult to come by.
Rising temperatures are expected to worsen droughts in areas that rely on聽蝉苍辞飞辫补肠办听for freshwater, while increasing both the severity and frequency of聽hazards聽like avalanches, landslides, flash floods and glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs).
One Peruvian farmer聽living downstream of a retreating glacier聽has taken the issue to court,聽聽for a portion of聽迟丑别听glacial lake’s flood defenses proportionate to its historic global emissions.
“The changes we see in the field are literally heartbreaking,” glaciologist Heidi Sevestre, secretariat at the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Program, told Reuters outside the UNESCO headquarters in Paris on Wednesday.
“Things in certain regions are happening actually much faster than we anticipated,” Ms. Sevestre added, noting a recent trip to the Rwenzori Mountains, located in Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo聽in East Africa, where glaciers are now expected to disappear by 2030.
Ms. Sevestre has worked聽with the region’s聽indigenous Bakonzo communities聽who believe聽a deity called聽Kitasamba lives in the glaciers.
“Can you imagine the deep spiritual connection, this strong attachment they have towards the glaciers and what it might mean for them that their glaciers are disappearing?” Ms. Sevestre said.
Glacial melt in East Africa has led to increased local conflicts over water, according to the new UNESCO report, and while the impact聽on a聽global scale is minimal, the trickle of melting glaciers around the world is having a compounding impact.
Between 2000 and 2023, melting mountain glaciers have caused 18聽millimeters of global sea level rise, about 1 mm per year.聽Every millimeter can expose up to 300,000 people to annual flooding, according to the World Glacier Monitoring Service.
“Billions of people are connected to glaciers, whether they know it or not, and that will require billions of people to protect them,” Ms. Sevestre said. – Reuters
