Glaciers seen melting faster than ever
The Klinaklini glacier in British Columbia, Canada, shown in September 2017, has lost nearly 16 billion tons of snow and ice since 2000, with 10.7 billion tons of that since 2010. Brian Menounos VIA AP/FILE
FILE - This May 9, 2020 file photo shows the Mendenhall Glacier in Juneau, Alaska. Since 2000, the glacier has lost 2.8 billion tons (2.5 billion metric tons) of snow and ice, with more than 1.7 billion tons (1.6 billion metric tons) since 2010. According to a study released on Wednesday, April 28, 2021 in the journal Nature, the world s 220,000 glaciers are melting faster now than in the 2000s. (AP Photo/Becky Bohrer) Becky Bohrer
Losing Mountain Glaciers
(Photo : Photo by Marvin Olson from Pixabay)
According to a report published in the journal Nature, scientists estimated that the world s 220,000 mountain glaciers have been losing more than 328 billion tons (298 billion metric tons) of ice and snow each year since 2015. Every year, enough melt flows into the world s growing waters to submerge Switzerland by nearly 24 feet (7.2 meters).
From 2015 to 2019, the annual melt rate was 78 billion tons (71 billion metric tons) higher than it was from 2000 to 2004. Global thinning rates, which are separate from the amount of water lost, have doubled in the last 20 years, according to Romain Hugonnet, a glaciologist at ETH Zurich and the University of Toulouse in France, who led the research.
German glaciers may melt away in 10 years, study finds
Germany s five glaciers, all in Bavaria s Alps and melting faster than once forecast, could be doomed within 10 years, experts have said. Melt from glaciers is partially responsible for rising sea levels.
Walks like this on a glacier in the German Alps could be impossible in as little as 10 years
Glaciologist Christoph Mayer said Bavaria s five glaciers combined had already shrunk to just half a square kilometer (124 acres) of ice the equivalent of 36 football fields, and 88% less compared to their status around 1850.
Although small, their fate as climate indicators were of great importance, said Mayer.
iPolitics By iPolitics. Published on Apr 29, 2021 11:20am
The Lead
“Over the last 20 years, we’ve seen that glaciers have lost about 267 gigatonnes per year. So, if we take that amount of water and we divide it up across the island of Ireland, that’s enough to cover all of Ireland in 3m of water each year,” Robert McNabb, a member of the research team that conducted the study, told BBC News.
Scientists have long warned that warming temperatures driven by climate change are impacting glaciers and ice sheets around the world, resulting in rising sea levels that threaten many of the the world’s coastal cities.