According to a new study by an international team of scientists, glaciers around the planet are shrinking faster than expected. By the end of the century, two-thirds of the glaciers could disappear if current climate change trends continue.
Today, the world is on track for a temperature increase of 2.7 degrees Celsius compared to pre-industrial times. After studying 215,000 land-based glaciers (not including Greenland and Antarctica, which are all known glaciers on our planet), scientists used computer simulations to calculate, using various levels of warming, how many glaciers would disappear, how many trillion tons of ice would melt and how much this would contribute to rising sea levels.
It turned out that if current climate change trends continue, the world would lose about 32 percent of the mass of its glaciers, or 48.5 trillion tons of ice, by 2100, and 68 percent of all glaciers would disappear completely. Then the level of the world's oceans will rise by 11.5 centimeters, an effect that will "add up" to melting polar ice and continuing water warming.
This rise in ocean levels will affect at least ten million people on the planet whose homes will be below tidal level. Also, melting glaciers will mean an enormous loss of freshwater supplies, increased risk of flooding, and destruction of the famous icy landscapes of the world's highest mountains, including Everest.
For many small glaciers, the "point of no return" has already been passed: even if humanity dramatically changes its mind and significantly reduces greenhouse gas emissions, the glaciers will still shrink markedly in area and are likely to disappear. However, if the world were to stop global warming at an incredible 1.5 degrees Celsius (it has already reached 1.1 degrees), the Earth would lose only 28 percent of its glaciers.
The disappearance of glaciers would affect billions of people, as some of the largest rivers originate from their ice reserves. Considering that they not only provide drinking water for the population, but also allow agriculture and energy through hydroelectric power plants, the disappearance of these rivers would have an enormous impact on the earth's economy.
