It seems like ignoring the climate crisis isn’t going to work after all, as the studies are becoming more concrete and threatening: According to a new study, around half of the world’s glaciers will disappear by the end of the century. Even limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels, researchers estimate 49 percent of the world’s 215,000 glaciers will disappear by 2100, according to the study published Thursday in the journal Science.
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The results provide the most comprehensive look yet at the future of glaciers on Earth. The authors highlight the importance of limiting greenhouse gas emissions and the consequences of glacial melt such as sea level rise.
Study on the climate crisis: Each degree leads to more glacier losses
For the study, they examined the effects of four scenarios on glaciers, in which the global average temperature increases by 1.5, two, three and four degrees. “Each degree more leads to more melt and losses,” said Regine Hock of the University of Oslo and the University of Alaska Fairbanks and co-author of the study for the AFP news agency. “However, this also means that losses can be reduced by reducing the temperature rise. In this respect, there is still a little hope.”
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With a 1.5 degree rise in average global temperature, losses would account for about 26 percent of the world’s ice mass because the smallest glaciers would be hit first. The sea level would rise by an average of nine centimetres.
According to the study, in the worst-case scenario of an increase in average global temperature, sea levels would rise by 15 centimetres. Then larger glaciers, for example in Alaska, would also be more severely affected. By the end of the century, 83 percent of the glaciers would disappear, which would be 41 percent of the ice mass.
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Hock said nine to six inches of sea-level rise might not seem like much. However, the values are a “big cause for concern” because the higher they are, the more flooding would occur during storms and thus cause “much more damage”.
Glacier melt also affecting drinking water supply
According to the study, the disappearance of glaciers also affects water resources. Accordingly, they supplied fresh water for around two billion people.
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Scientist Hock said it was still possible to limit the consequences. “Whether that happens depends on policymakers.”