Latest news with #glaciers
Daily Mail
a day ago
- Science
- Daily Mail
Discovery at Earth's 'most dangerous glacier' sparks joy among climate skeptics
Scientists have made a startling discovery that may debunk global warming at Earth's 'most dangerous glacier,' sending climate change deniers into celebration. Based on a surprising photo taken by the International Space Station (ISS) in 2023, researchers from around the world have concluded that three glaciers in Asia 's Karakoram mountain range have been gaining ice and merging. The NASA image revealed that the Lolofond and Teram Shehr glaciers have been slowly merging with the Siachen glacier near the borders of India, Pakistan, China, and Afghanistan. The region has long been referred to as the world's most dangerous glacier range due to the ongoing conflict between India and Pakistan, with both nations positioning troops on their side of the glaciers since 1984. Long before the photo was revealed, scientists had called the unexplained ice gains the 'Karakoram anomaly,' since many climate studies have found that most glaciers worldwide are losing mass due to rising temperatures. However, this is the second major glacier location to see more ice being formed in recent years. In May, researchers in Shanghai discovered that Antarctica started to reverse its decades-long trend of catastrophic melting and has seen record amounts of ice forming since 2021. The latest development from Karakoram has set off climate deniers on social media, who have continued to claim that the alarmism over global warming has been nothing more than a hoax. 'UH oh, Democrats. Are we back to a new Ice Age?' one person joked on X, referring to Democrat-led climate bills in Congress. 'This anomaly has baffled scientists for years, no doubt upsetting #ClimateChange fanatics,' another person posted. To the climate deniers' point, scientists studying the Karakoram anomaly since the 1990s still haven't been able to pin down a clear reason why more ice has been forming and the glaciers are merging. One possible explanation could be that favorable weather patterns in the region have kept the ice from melting. That includes seeing cooler summers and more snow in the winter. A 2022 study in the Journal of Climate found that wintertime precipitation intensity (snow) in the Karakoram range rose by roughly 10 percent between 1980 and 2019. However, a 2023 study in Earth System Science Data claimed that the phenomenon likely wouldn't last due to rising global temperatures countering this short stretch of cold weather. 'This may indicate a weakening of the abnormal behavior of glaciers in the Karakoram owing to the continuous warming,' the researchers said. Despite the latest climate findings, the region has continued to show signs of unusual ice growth that have left geologists and climatologists stumped. Another theory, posed by geology professor Kenneth Hewitt of Wilfrid Laurier University in Canada, suggested that thick layers of dust and debris could be keeping the ice underneath from melting in the sun like other glaciers. His 2005 paper in the journal Mountain Research and Development found that less than two inches of debris from local avalanches and rockfalls over the centuries would be enough to start protecting the ice from melting. However, researchers from the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Colorado shot this theory down, noting that if the Karakoram anomaly only started in the 1990s, as studies show, something else would need to spark this trend besides centuries of dust. Siachen has been the world's second-longest glacier outside of Greenland and Antarctica. NASA scientists have measured it to be around 47 miles long and 2.2 miles in width. Sitting near K2, the world's second-highest mountain, the Siachen glacier's peak starts around 19,000 feet above sea level and descends to around 11,800 feet. The photo released by NASA also highlighted the dark-colored moraines, which are parallel bands formed from rock and dust wedged between the glaciers as they merge. These layers were particularly noticeable around the Teram Shehr glacier as it smashes into the Siachen glacier from the right side. As scientists struggle to answer the question of why more ice is growing in this disputed part of Asia, the mystery has given skeptics of climate science even more evidence to use against so-called 'climate alarmists.' University of Cambridge professor Mike Hulme told in 2023 that climate alarmists have created tremendous distrust and ill will among the public by blaming almost all of society's issues on the climate emergency. 'Climate change is cited as the sole explanation for everything going wrong in the world. Drought, famine, flooding, wars, racism – you name it. And if it's bad, it's down to global warming caused by humans,' Professor Hulme said. 'I disagree with the doom-mongers. Climate change is not like a comet approaching Earth. There is no good scientific or historical evidence that it will lead to human extinction or the collapse of human civilization,' the professor of human geography added.
NHK
a day ago
- Climate
- NHK
Climate crisis visible in tropical glaciers
The melting of glaciers in the Andes due to global warming is raising the risk of imminent disasters and future water shortages.
CBC
3 days ago
- Science
- CBC
What happens if Canada's thickest glaciers disappear?
The St. Elias mountain range is home to the world's largest non-polar icefields. In recent years, climate change has caused glaciers within the icefields to melt at increasingly rapid rates. Now, people in communities — whose lives have been shaped by glaciers for generations — are left wondering what could happen, if some of them disappear.
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Science
- Yahoo
Scientists discover worrying phenomenon after drilling into glaciers: 'We need to be prepared'
Scientists discover worrying phenomenon after drilling into glaciers: 'We need to be prepared' Scientists tracking the loss of glaciers in the Swiss Alps have uncovered an alarming development regarding their disappearance, and it could have devastating implications for the future. What's happening? Most discussions about the loss of glaciers tend to focus on the polar ice caps, but Switzerland is rightly regarded as the undisputed European capital of glaciers. There are around 1,400 glaciers in the landlocked European nation that provide drinking water and irrigation for millions. As global temperatures rise, they're disappearing at an unsustainable rate. The Associated Press reported that 1,000 smaller glaciers have been lost, and things don't look better for the larger ones. Scientists tracking the glaciers are drilling holes to gain further insights, and they have uncovered an alarming detail. Typically, a glacier melts from the top, but as glaciologist Matthias Huss of the Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich explained, they're also disappearing from the bottom. "In recent years we realized at several sites that there is a substantive melt from the bottom," he said. "If there are some channels in the ice through which air is circulating, this can excavate big holes under the ice." Why is glacier loss so significant? Losing glaciers is bad enough, but the nature of the melt means there's another danger, and it has already occurred. In May, ancient ice from the Birch Glacier gave way, and Blatten, a tiny mountainside village, was destroyed in an instant. Fortunately, residents were evacuated ahead of time, but a village that had existed for 800 years is no more. Without action, many more homes could be lost forever. Up to two-thirds of the world's glaciers could be lost by the end of the century as the planet heats up from the use of dirty energy. Extreme weather events will become ever more common and destructive as a result. What's being done to protect glaciers? In the short term, the researchers are employing giant sheets to cover the glaciers and slow down the melt. In the long term, it's vital to bring down planet-heating pollution. Switzerland has made progress in this regard; the International Energy Agency reports the country has reduced its carbon dioxide emissions 24% since 2000, but more aggressive adoption of clean energy is needed worldwide. As Huss noted, Blatten's fate serves as a crucial warning of the dangers ahead and the importance of staying informed on the issues. "I think this is the main lesson to be learned, that we need to be prepared," he said. Do you worry about air pollution in your town? All the time Often Only sometimes Never Click your choice to see results and speak your mind. 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. Solve the daily Crossword
Malay Mail
17-07-2025
- Climate
- Malay Mail
Water runs dry in French Alps as heatwave accelerates glacier melt
SAINT-CHRISTOPHE-EN-OISANS, July 17 — June's heatwave has caused French Alps snow and glaciers to melt faster, causing water shortages at mountain shelters just before the summer tourist hiking season gets into full swing. 'Everything has dried up,' said Noemie Dagan, who looks after the Selle refuge, located at an altitude of 2,673 meters (8,769 feet) in the Ecrins, a mountain range overtowered by two majestic peaks. The snowfield that usually supplies water to her 60-bed chalet already 'looks a bit like what we would expect at the end of July or early August', she said. 'We are nearly a month early in terms of the snow's melting.' The mountain refuge, lacking a water tank, relies on water streaming down from the mountain. If it runs out it, the shelter will have to close. This happened in mid-August 2023, and could happen again. Dagan's backup solutions to avoid such a scenario include plastic pipes a kilometre long (0.6 mile) — installed with difficulty — to collect water from a nearby glacier close to the Pic de la Grave. But the slopes along which the pipe was laid are steep, unstable and vulnerable to increasingly violent storms ravaging the range. In the 15 years that she has worked in the sector, Dagan has witnessed 'a metamorphosis' of the mountains and glaciers that are 'our watertowers', she said. 'We are basically the sentinels who have seen what is coming.' 'Never even crossed our minds' Thomas Boillot, a local mountain guide, said the possibility one day of seeing water supply issues affecting the mountain shelters had 'never even crossed our minds'. But such cases have increased 'and there will likely be more,' he added. Some snowfields once considered eternal now melt in the summer, precipitation has become scarcer, and glaciers change shape as they melt — factors that combine to disrupt the water supply for chalets. Water used to arrive 'through gravity' from snow and ice reserves higher up, but it is going to have to be pumped from below in the future, he said. Mountaineers walk along crevasses on the Glacier de la Selle in the Ecrins Massif in Saint-Christophe-en-Oisans, early in the morning on July 9, 2025. — AFP pic Scientists say that the impact of climate change is nearly twice as severe in the Alps as it is globally, warning that only remnants of today's glaciers are likely to exist by 2100 — if they haven't disappeared altogether by then. This year's weather is also dangerous for the 1,400 glaciers in neighbouring Switzerland, where the authorities report that accumulated snow and ice have melted five to six weeks before the usual time. 'Brutal' is the term Xavier Cailhol, an environmental science PhD student and mountain guide, used to describe the impact of the heatwave that he saw on a recent trip to the massif of the Mont Blanc, western Europe's highest mountain. 'I started ski-touring on Mont Blanc in June with 40 centimetres (16 inches) of powder snow. I ended up on glaciers that were completely bare, even as high up as the Midi Peak, at 3,700 meters altitude,' he said. A cover of snow helps to protect the ice underneath by reflecting sunlight, he noted. 'Above 3,200 meters, it's drier than anything we've seen before,' he said. 'It's quite concerning for the rest of the summer.' A case in point is the accelerated melting of the Bossons Glacier, a massive ice tongue overlooking the valley before Chamonix. It began with a 'patch of gravel' which became larger, and 'in fact is speeding up the melting at that location' because its dark colour absorbs more heat. The melting of the Bossons Glacier is clearly visible from Chamonix, making it a constant reminder of what is happening to glaciers everywhere. 'It's a symbol,' said Cailhol. — AFP
