Half of the Earth\u2019s glaciers are destined to disappear by the end of the century because of climate change
\n London
\nHalf of the Earth\u2019s glaciers, notably smaller ones, are destined to disappear by the end of the century because of climate change, but limiting global warming could save others, according to a new study.
\nThe findings, published in the journal Science on Thursday, provide the most comprehensive look so far at the future of the world\u2019s 215,000 glaciers.
\nThe authors emphasized the importance of restricting greenhouse gas emissions to limit the consequences from glacier melt such as sea level rise and depletion of water resources.
\nTo help orient policy makers, the study looked at the impact of four scenarios on glaciers, where global mean temperature change is 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit), 2.0C, 3.0C and 4.0C.
\n\u201cEvery degree increase produces more melt and loss,\u201d said Regine Hock of the University of Oslo and University of Alaska Fairbanks, a co-author of the study.
\n\u201cBut that also means if you reduce the temperature increase, you can also reduce that mass loss,\u201d Hock told AFP. \u201cSo in that sense, there is also a little bit of hope.\u201d
\nEven if global temperature rise is limited to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels — the most ambitious goal of the Paris Agreement — the researchers estimated that 49 percent of the world\u2019s glaciers would vanish by the year 2100.
\nThat would represent about 26 percent of the world\u2019s glacier mass because the smallest glaciers would be those first impacted.
\nGlobal mean temperature is currently estimated to be increasing by 2.7C which would result in a near-complete loss of glaciers in Central Europe, Western Canada and the continental United States and New Zealand.
\n\u201cRegions with relatively little ice like the European Alps, the Caucasus, the Andes, or the western US, they lose almost all the ice by the end of the century almost no matter what the emission scenario is,\u201d Hock said. \u201cSo those glaciers, they\u2019re more or less doomed.\u201d
\nUnder the worst-case scenario — global temperature rise of 4.0C — giant glaciers such as those in Alaska would be more affected and 83 percent of glaciers would disappear by the end of the century.
\nGlacier loss would also exacerbate sea level rise.
\n\u201cThe glaciers that we are studying are only one percent of all ice on Earth,\u201d said Hock, \u201cmuch less than the Greenland ice sheet and the Antarctic ice sheet.
\n\u201cBut they have contributed to sea level rise almost just as much as the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheet together in the last three decades,\u201d she said.
\nWarming of 1.5C would lead to an increase in average sea levels of nine centimeters while temperatures 4.0C higher would cause 15 centimeters of sea level rise.
\n\u201cIt doesn\u2019t sound very much, nine centimeters up to 15 centimeters,\u201d Hock said, \u201cbut it\u2019s not global sea level that is that much of a concern.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s mostly associated storm surges,\u201d she said, which have the potential to cause \u201ca lot more damage.\u201d
\nThe disappearance of glaciers will also have an impact on water resources because they provide freshwater for some two billion people.
\n\u201cThe glaciers compensate for the loss of water in summer when it\u2019s not raining much and it\u2019s hot,\u201d Hock said.
\nThe study\u2019s projections, which are more pessimistic than those of UN climate experts, were reached through observations of the mass of each glacier through the decades and computer simulations<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Half of the Earth\u2019s glaciers are destined to disappear by the end of the century because of climate change London Half of the Earth\u2019s glaciers, notably smaller ones, are destined to disappear by the end of the century because of climate change, but limiting global warming could save others, according to a new study. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":305959,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-305946","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n