Latest news with #WorldGlacierMonitoringService
Hindustan Times
3 days ago
- Science
- Hindustan Times
Glacial pace of climate action has imperilled Earth's glaciers
The Yala Glacier, at over 5,000 metres above sea level, is a glacier on the brink. With rapid warming and declining winter snowfall, the river of ice is set to soon stop accumulating enough ice mass to move — and lose its glacier status. It joins a growing list of frozen casualties to the Great Thaw that we are now living through, and on May 12, communities, scientists, and local government met at the foot of the glacier to mark its rapid disappearance. The World Meteorological Organization's 2024 State of the Global Climate report, issued earlier this year, confirms last year was the hottest year on Earth in 175 years of observations. A major UN report published in March zeroed in on the implications of the relentless uptick in global temperatures, and emissions, for one of the most climate-sensitive components of the Earth system: our frozen mountain water resources. Among its findings is the stark fact that many mountain glaciers will not survive the 21st century. Changes to our mountains' glaciers, snow, and permafrost may not dominate our newsfeeds to the same extent as heatwaves, wildfires, or conflicts, do. However, these are the source of 60-70% of Earth's freshwater, and so the UN's findings should alarm the world. Many are aware of the very grave threats ice melt from polar ice sheets pose to flooding of low-elevation coastal populations and low-lying States; however, the threats we face from mountain glaciers and snow melting are set to hit us far sooner and will be no less devastating. In many cases, these will have more direct and near-term consequences for economic systems, and for massive human populations. Nowhere is this truer than in Asia, a continent where half the population lives in a river basin whose headwaters rise in the Hindu Kush Himalaya — the 3,500km-long mountain range that stores more snow and ice than any region outside the two geographical polar regions. Already, we are seeing breathtaking losses in mountain snowpack and ice. A new World Glacier Monitoring Service study shows that mountain glaciers lost over six trillion tonnes of ice between 2000 and 2023. While that's 'only' 5.4% of total glacier mass, it's 18% more than the mass lost from the Greenland ice sheet, and more than double what's been lost from the Antarctic ice sheet. And these mountain losses are accelerating — increasing by 36% from the first decade of the study to the second. The European Alps have recorded the largest losses, with 39% of glacier mass gone since the turn of the century. The Canadian Rockies have lost almost a quarter of their mass. While the snowpack and glaciers of High Mountain Asia are projected to be among the last to go, even here, one-fifth of the glacier mass has already melted away. This relatively slower decline in glacier mass balance should be of cold comfort to policymakers, economists, and populations in India and across High Mountain Asia. A huge proportion of Asia's economic output is generated within the river basins of the 10 major rivers that rise in these mountains. Close to half of India's annual GDP is generated in just the Ganges and Indus river basins. According to glaciologist Heidi Sevestre, the risks of water stress from diminishing water from the Ganga, the Brahmaputra, and the Indus make these three of the top four rivers 'most vulnerable to cryosphere change'. While India has made significant strides in human development in recent years, food insecurity remains extremely high across South Asia. Water variability prompted by glacier melt and changes in snowmelt for those living in up- and down-streams of the region's 10 major rivers — estimated to be above two billion people, 31% of whom are food insecure and 50% facing malnutrition — is one of the most serious and immediate consequences of global temperature rise, as per the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD). Water variability and incidence of droughts are likely to increase in the coming years, and overall water flows in river systems are also likely to decline from 2050 onwards. The UN Report states these 'reduced water flows and increased droughts are expected to jeopardise food, water, energy, and livelihood security in the Hindu Kush Himalaya region as well as disrupt ecosystems and escalate risks of conflict and migration.' The world in 2025 is facing extraordinary headwinds. Amidst all the conflict, political volatility, misinformation, and disinformation, it's clear that every fraction of a degree of warming lengthens the odds against not just peace but humanity's very survival. This year is also the year that the United Nations has declared as the 'International Year for Glaciers' Preservation', a year of awareness raising of the need for action to preserve our glaciers. In March, policymakers, academics, and other experts gathered all around the world to mark the first-ever UN World Day for Glaciers; at the just-concluded Dushanbe International Conference on Glaciers' Preservation, Tajikistan, one of the most glacier-rich countries in the world, leaders had the opportunity to emphasise their commitment to action. This year also marks 10 years since the Paris Agreement, by which countries had committed to limiting warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial times. Holding warming at this level is the only way to limit glacier loss. So far, we are failing to meet this important goal. Asia is disproportionately exposed to the losses of the Earth's snow and ice. However, the good news is that Asia, due to its contribution of over 50% of the world's greenhouse gas emissions, is uniquely placed to safeguard its own economies, populations, and ecosystems — not to mention the future of humanity, by decarbonising its economies, and accelerating the green transition. It can formalise this through the nationally determined contributions for the UN climate conference (COP30) to be held in Brazil this November. This is the year that we must turn our emissions around. Ultimately, when people in the future reflect on this age, I hope that they will note that we have been focusing on the right issues. And perhaps, when they look back, they will look to this year, and to Asia, and see that this was the time and place when change started to move in the right direction. John Pomeroy is co-chair of the UN Advisory Board for the International Year for Glaciers' Preservation - 2025 UNESCO Chair in Mountain Water Sustainability, and director of the Global Water Futures Programme at the University of Saskatchewan, Canada. The views expressed are personal
Yahoo
07-04-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Researchers identify powerful new factor threatening coastlines worldwide: 'Now second largest contributor'
A new study reveals how much vanishing glaciers contribute to the rise of the world's sea level, as nearly 300 billion tons of ice are lost annually. Data from the Glacier Mass Balance Intercomparison Exercise, an international scientific community initiative, played a big part in an analysis published in Nature magazine that outlined the global glacier mass changes the planet experienced from 2000 to 2023. The study revealed that vanishing glaciers are "now the second largest contributor to sea level rise," per a report in Laboratory News. According to the World Glacier Monitoring Service, more than 9,000 billion tons of glacier ice have been lost since 1975, not including the ice melt from Greenland and Antarctica's continental sheets. This loss is equivalent to a colossal ice slab the size of Germany, standing more than 80 feet tall. The 2024 hydrological year continued the concerning trend, marking the third consecutive year of net mass loss across all 19 glacier regions. "Since 2000, glaciers have lost between 2% and 39% of their ice regionally and about 5% globally," according to the study. "Glacier mass loss is about 18% larger than the loss from the Greenland Ice Sheet and more than twice that from the Antarctic Ice Sheet." During the 24-year period ending in 2023, glacier melt meant just over a 0.7-inch rise in global sea level. The World Glacier Monitoring Service director, Professor Michael Zemp, speaking to the World Meteorological Organization, acknowledged that at first glance, that might not sound impressive, "but it has a big impact: every millimeter sea-level rise exposes an additional 200,000 to 300,000 people to annual flooding." The first-ever World Day for Glaciers was held on March 21 to raise awareness about the global impacts of accelerating glacier melt. Over the past six years, five have witnessed the most rapid glacier loss ever recorded. The World Meteorological Organization warns that glaciers in many regions of the world will not survive this century. Vanishing glaciers threaten water supplies for hundreds of millions of people on our planet. Researchers from Boston College found that glacier melting was happening at an even faster pace than previously thought. They warned that as melting increases, it will drive even faster melting in the future. Scientists are actively mapping our planet's glaciers because they play a key role in cooling our planet by reflecting solar radiation that the land on Earth would otherwise absorb. Shifting away from our reliance on dirty energy sources and moving toward renewable options is vital for curbing the amount of heat-trapping gases being released into Earth's atmosphere. Do you think America could ever go zero-waste? Never Not anytime soon Maybe in some states Definitely Click your choice to see results and speak your mind. There are things we can do to help when it comes time to consider making upgrades to our homes. Making choices like buying an induction stove rather than a conventional range, a heat pump instead of a conventional HVAC system, and an EV versus a gas-powered vehicle can have an impact. Join our free newsletter for good news and useful tips, and don't miss this cool list of easy ways to help yourself while helping the planet.
The National
25-03-2025
- Climate
- The National
Chart of the week: The future of glaciers
World Water Day has been marked annually on March 22 since 1993. It is an annual UN observance focusing on freshwater, primarily to support the sixth Sustainable Development Goal: Water and sanitation for all by 2030. Every year, the UN releases the World Water Development Report, and for more than 10 years, the report has covered different thematics. This year's report is on mountains and glaciers. According to the UN's current report, mountains and glaciers supply half the annual freshwater flows - around 55 to 60 per cent - and two-thirds of irrigated agriculture may depend on mountain waters. Additionally, mountains and highlands reduce the risk of erosion and landslides, cool local temperatures and produce high-value products such as medicinal plants. However, due to climate change and rapidly rising global temperatures, many of these benefits are at risk. According to the World Glacier Monitoring Service, the world has been losing tonnes of ice mass. Nearly 80 per cent of the greatest losses - "negative mass balances" - have been recorded since 2010. In 2024, the world lost more than 1.2 tonnes per square metre of ice, the highest amount in the past three decades. Since 1950, it has accumulated a mass balance of minus 27.4 tonnes per square metre or the loss of more than 30 metres of glacier-wide ice thickness. The regions more affected are Central Europe and the Southern Andes. Melting glaciers are also responsible for rising tides. By 2023, two-thirds of sea level rises were due to melting glaciers. According to the European Space Agency, between 2000 and 2023, ice loss contributed 18mm to global sea levels. Although the mountains of the Arab region are often overlooked, these areas have an essential role in providing water, in the form of snowmelt, for agriculture, particularly in sustaining crops during the summer when rainfall is limited. It is also responsible for communities and centres of economic activity in tourism and industry. Mount Lebanon (extending nearly the entire length of Lebanon) and the High Atlas Mountains (stretching through Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia) are the main providers of water in the region. Snowfall accumulates in several mountains over winter. As the weather warms up during the spring, the melting snow feeds into streams, reservoirs and aquifers at lower elevations. Nonetheless, due to climate change, seasonal snowfall and overall precipitation are expected to decrease, affecting snow cover duration, depth, and the availability of freshwater resources. These expected reductions together with projected population growth will lead the Arab region to struggle with water-related issues such as sanitation and hygiene and fall below the absolute water scarcity threshold by 2050. For this reason, scientists in the UAE are working to develop more effective desalination and water treatment in the Gulf. Nidal Hilal, a professor of engineering and the director of NYU Abu Dhabi Water Research Centre, works on membrane technology and nanotechnology for water purification. At the Water Research Centre, teams work to improve membrane design to reduce energy and carbon emissions when treating water and heavy metal removal from wastewater, a relevant issue in water-scarce regions. Also, the team has manufactured the first UAE-made membrane for reverse osmosis, focused on water properties in the Arabian Gulf. Considering 70 per cent of water usage goes to agriculture, they use membrane technology to reclaim wastewater for this sector.
Asharq Al-Awsat
21-03-2025
- Science
- Asharq Al-Awsat
World's Glaciers are Losing Record Ice as Global Temperatures Climb, UN 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 a UNESCO report released on Friday. The 9,000 gigatons of ice lost from glaciers since 1975 are roughly 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 announcing the report at the UN headquarters in Geneva. The dramatic ice loss, from the Arctic to the Alps, from South America to the Tibetan Plateau, is expected to accelerate as climate change, caused by the burning of fossil fuels, pushes global temperatures higher. This would likely exacerbate economic, environmental 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, Reuters said. Zemp said that five of the last six years registered the largest losses, with glaciers 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 devastating floods and damaging water routes that billions of people depend on for hydroelectric energy and agriculture. Stefan Uhlenbrook, the director of water and cryosphere at the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), said that about 275,000 glaciers remain globally which, along with the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets, 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 better early warning systems for the planet and the people," Uhlenbrook said. DANGERS AND DEITIES About 1.1 billion people live in mountain communities, which suffer the most immediate impacts of glacier loss, due to the increasing risks with natural hazards and unreliable water 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 snowpack for freshwater, while increasing both the severity and frequency of hazards like avalanches, landslides, flash floods and glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs). One Peruvian farmer living downstream of a retreating glacier has taken the issue to court, suing German energy giant RWE for a portion of the 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," Sevestre added, noting a recent trip to the Rwenzori Mountains, located in Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo in East Africa, where glaciers are now expected to disappear by 2030. Sevestre has worked with the region's indigenous Bakonzo communities who believe a deity called 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?" 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 on a 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 millimeters of global sea level rise, about 1 mm per year. 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," Sevestre said.
Japan Times
21-03-2025
- Science
- Japan Times
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 a UNESCO report released on Friday. The 9,000 gigatons of ice lost from glaciers since 1975 are roughly 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 news conference announcing the report at the U.N. headquarters in Geneva. The dramatic ice loss, from the Arctic to the Alps, from South America to the Tibetan Plateau, is expected to accelerate as climate change, caused by the burning of fossil fuels, pushes global temperatures higher. This would likely exacerbate economic, environmental 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. Zemp said that five of the last six years registered the largest losses, with glaciers 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 devastating floods and damaging water routes that billions of people depend on for hydroelectric energy and agriculture. Stefan Uhlenbrook, the director of water and cryosphere at the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), said that about 275,000 glaciers remain globally which, along with the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets, 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 better early warning systems for the planet and the people," Uhlenbrook said. About 1.1 billion people live in mountain communities, which suffer the most immediate impacts of glacier loss, due to the increasing risks with natural hazards and unreliable water 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 snowpack for freshwater, while increasing both the severity and frequency of hazards like avalanches, landslides, flash floods and glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs). One Peruvian farmer living downstream of a retreating glacier has taken the issue to court, suing German energy giant RWE for a portion of the 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, said outside the UNESCO headquarters in Paris on Wednesday. "Things in certain regions are happening actually much faster than we anticipated," Sevestre added, noting a recent trip to the Rwenzori Mountains, located in Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo in East Africa, where glaciers are now expected to disappear by 2030. Sevestre has worked with the region's indigenous Bakonzo communities who believe a deity called 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?" 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 on a 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 millimeters of global sea level rise, about 1 mm per year. 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," Sevestre said.
