The fast melting of glaciers poses a great threat to the global population. Rise in temperature, deforestation and high level of pollution caused by the emission of greenhouse gases from vehicles and industries are contributing to the gradual disappearance of glaciers.
According to media reports, glaciers in New Zealand are shrinking as ice melts at an accelerating rate, a top scientist warned after concluding a monitoring expedition in the country's Southern Alps. During their expedition, scientists see continued loss of glacial ice.
Many once-grand glaciers now appear ‘smashed and shattered’. New Zealand’s glaciers are unique and many of them are accessible to tourists.
It is not just happening in New Zealand but all over the world. Nearly all of the glaciers across the world are losing at an ever increasing pace, contributing to more than a fifth of global sea level rise this century, according to a study.
Many once-grand
glaciers now appear
‘smashed and shattered’
Glaciers — vast bodies of frozen water that sit above ground — have been melting fast since the middle of the 20th century, but until now the full extent of ice loss had only been partially understood. An international team of researchers has for the first time observed all of Earth’s some 220,000 glaciers, excluding the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, to properly evaluate the amount and the rate of melting over the past two decades.
Analysing the images taken by NASA’s Terra satellite, they found that between 2000-2019, the world’s glaciers lost an average of 267 billion tonnes of ice each year. That is enough to submerge Switzerland under six metres (20 feet) of water — every single year.
However, the team also found that the rate of glacier melt had accelerated sharply during the same period. Between 2000 and 2004, glaciers lost 227 billion tonnes of ice per year. But between 2015-2019, they lost an average of 298 billion tonnes each year.
This glacial melt has contributed to 21 percent of sea level rise in the study period which equivalent to 0.74 millimetres a year, the researchers said. Glaciers, like the ice caps, contribute to sea level rise but they are also far closer to populations, so they affect the water cycle and natural disasters much more.
Therefore, we must take rise in greenhouse gases seriously to save our glaciers.