These huge masses of ice are sources of fresh water and are rapidly disappearing with climate change.
A post about the rapid loss of glacial ice that went viral on social media has highlighted the shock many people feel at the effects of global warming on iconic landscapes.
The X publication by Bristol, England, conservationist David Porter shows him and his wife on the Rhone Glacier in Switzerland. It had been 15 years since they were last photographed there. The great loss of ice during that time affected him deeply. “I won’t lie, it made me cry,” he wrote. And he’s not the only one who’s sad.
These huge masses of ice are sources of fresh water and are rapidly disappearing with climate change (Photo: Fabrice Coffrini/AFP)
Funeral ceremony for the lost glacier
Glaciers, or glaciers, are masses of ice formed by successive layers of compacted and recrystallized snow that have sculpted mountains and valleys over the millennia: the oldest is found in South Africa and is 2.9 billion years old.
But across the planet, The glaciers, which contain enough fresh water for about 2 billion people, are melting. At least half of the world’s mountain glaciers are likely to disappear by 2100 due to global warming from climate change.
Societies where cold is a central cultural element are struggling to cope with this loss. In 2019, a memorial service was held at the Okjökull glacier in Iceland, believed to be the first to disappear due to global warming.
Those present unveiled a sign announcing that all major Icelandic glaciers are expected to disappear within the next 200 years.
While mountains and their “myriad ecosystems” are also important cultural elements, it is the glaciers that make these landscapes “unique in people’s imaginations,” observes glaciologist Giovanni Baccolo of the University of Milano-Bicocca in Italy.
Baccolo also posts photos on social media that compare today’s glaciers with those of a century ago. “Glaciers are a world apart,” he adds.[Elas são] mountain icons.” When these ice caps melt, future generations will not draw Alpine mountains “with a white hat,” he added.
How glaciers form
Glacier ice is classified as a monomineral rock (a rock composed of only one mineral. Most glacier ice is formed through the transformation of tens of thousands of snowflakes into glacier ice crystals.
The process of glaciation begins when snow accumulates and turns to ice, which then expands as annual snowfall exceeds summer melt.
Mountain glaciers around the world accumulated enormous amounts of ice during the ice ages. They then moved downstream under their own weight and opened up massive canyons, such as those found in Yosemite Valley in California or the Southern Alps in New Zealand.
During the warm months of the year, when the world’s approximately 200,000 mountain glaciers partially melt, they release freshwater into rivers and tributaries. This water benefits crops, communities, and ecosystems that cover 25 percent of the world’s population.
However, this can only continue if the ice lost in the warm months is made up for each winter with sufficient snow. And in most regions, this is no longer the case.
Now that many of these giant “water towers” are retreating due to global warmingDroughts rapidly hit regions that depend on them. This includes South America, where some Andean glaciers in Bolivia and Peru have lost more than 50 percent of their mass since the 1980s. The result is a permanent shortage of water for agriculture and villages.
But there are also anomalies. In the Karakoram mountains, which border Pakistan, China and India and extend into Afghanistan, some glaciers have been slowly expanding in recent decades. Experts say this is due to the region’s specific climate patterns and that climate warming will eventually reach the Karakoram, which contains some of the world’s highest peaks, such as K2.
Accelerated dissolution in Europe
In the European Alps, glaciers are melting at a much faster rate than they are recovering, scientists say.
In Switzerland, a skier’s paradise, glaciers have lost a record 10% of their volume in just two years, between 2022 and 2023. This loss is equivalent to 30 years of decline between 1960 and 1990. Previously, a 2% decline in one year was described as extreme.
So fast The glacial decline has been attributed to extreme heat, lack of snow and prolonged summer melt.or, as 2022 was the warmest year on record in Europe. The years 2023 and 2024 continued the trend, both likely being the warmest on record worldwide.
Studies have shown that anthropomorphic climate change is the main cause of the accelerated retreat of glaciers. At the current rate, the vast glaciers of the Swiss Alps, such as the Morteratsch, which dates back to the start of the Little Ice Age about 750 years ago, will lose more than 70% of its volume within 40 years.
Is it still possible to save them?
Glaciers can no longer grow when they lose their protective snow cover that reflects the sun. Instead, the ice melts even faster.
Some are determined to save what remains. Swiss glaciologist Felix Keller and his team of engineers have created a system of pipes to recycle glacial meltwater and create a reflective snow layer that will protect the Morteratsch Glacier.
“I tried to do something. I want to be part of the solution and not part of the problem,” Keller says in the documentary Saving Glaciers.
Other researchers are also looking at ways to slow the melt. Some ski resorts have begun using reflective tarps, also called geotextiles, to protect ice from melting in the summer, with pros and cons.
The big problem is the use of geotextiles over large areas. The Aletsch Glacier in Switzerland, for example, covers about 78 square kilometers of mountainous terrain. And the ice of Norway’s Jostedalsbreen, the largest glacier in Europe, extends over 500 square kilometers.
Placing a light-reflective blanket over a small area works, but this only protects a small part of a glacier: covering the entire rugged surface is very difficult and expensive.
In a study examining efforts to combat glacier melt in the Alps, researchers concluded that it would be too expensive to protect the world’s more than 250,000 square kilometers of mountain glaciers using this method.
Already in the Indian Himalayas, so-called ice stupas – a large cone of ice that vaguely resembles the Buddhist ceremonial tombs known as stupas – were developed by redirecting water from high-altitude streams to villages in the valleys and refreezing it.
The same technique has already been adopted in Kyrgyzstan, Chile, Mongolia and other countries, helping villages cope with water shortages caused by retreating glaciers.
However, scientists say that as the world warms, these small, man-made glaciers will eventually suffer the same fate as natural ones: melt.
The only long-term solution is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, which fuel climate change, they insist.
Even so, if humanity were to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius – in the best-case scenario – half of the existing glaciers would disappear by the end of the century.
Source: Terra
Rose James is a Gossipify movie and series reviewer known for her in-depth analysis and unique perspective on the latest releases. With a background in film studies, she provides engaging and informative reviews, and keeps readers up to date with industry trends and emerging talents.
