![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
Before the Deluge
29/4/21 22:11![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
airiefairieClimate change: World's glaciers melting at a faster pace
While the world is fixated on the Covid pandemic, a much more serious menace is already threatening to become irreversible. Of course the most visible indication for what is coming is the rate that the glaciers are melting. And it has been unprecedented for the last 20 years.
While an average of 227 billion tons of ice used to melt annually in 2000-2004, now (2015-2019) this rate has increased to 298 billion tons. The melting processes have affected nearly all 220 thousand glaciers on Earth. And just a couple hundred of them are being permanently monitored. There are many regions that remain a mystery.
The satellite analysis has helped scientists create the first detailed itinerary of global glacier melting, and the picture is not good. The most affected glaciers are in the Alps, Iceland, the Himalayas and Alaska.
The conclusions from this research very much match those of the Key IPCC Conclusions on Climate Change Impacts and Adaptations, only they are much more detailed. Especially as far as the effect of glacier melting on rising sea level is concerned. Turns out, more than 20% of that process is caused by glacier melting.
The new data could also help craft adaptation strategies for densely populated areas where glaciers play a key role for agriculture and water supply. While melting glaciers could compensate the water shortages in some regions like India and the Andes, this is only a temporary solution, and the longer-term effects would be much more disruptive than beneficiary.
While the world is fixated on the Covid pandemic, a much more serious menace is already threatening to become irreversible. Of course the most visible indication for what is coming is the rate that the glaciers are melting. And it has been unprecedented for the last 20 years.
While an average of 227 billion tons of ice used to melt annually in 2000-2004, now (2015-2019) this rate has increased to 298 billion tons. The melting processes have affected nearly all 220 thousand glaciers on Earth. And just a couple hundred of them are being permanently monitored. There are many regions that remain a mystery.
The satellite analysis has helped scientists create the first detailed itinerary of global glacier melting, and the picture is not good. The most affected glaciers are in the Alps, Iceland, the Himalayas and Alaska.
The conclusions from this research very much match those of the Key IPCC Conclusions on Climate Change Impacts and Adaptations, only they are much more detailed. Especially as far as the effect of glacier melting on rising sea level is concerned. Turns out, more than 20% of that process is caused by glacier melting.
The new data could also help craft adaptation strategies for densely populated areas where glaciers play a key role for agriculture and water supply. While melting glaciers could compensate the water shortages in some regions like India and the Andes, this is only a temporary solution, and the longer-term effects would be much more disruptive than beneficiary.
