The planet is on its way there 3°C warming this century. United Nations analyzes countries’ plans for a safe climate and none of the major emitters have changed their climate protection measures. The experts’ instructions are clear. Emissions must fall by 8.7% every year by 2030 Stop the temperature rise. The current increase is already having consequences for the melting of glaciers and polar ice caps.
He The Arctic is warming much faster to the average of the planet. And that affects its glaciers. The lies south of Greenland They have lost a fifth of their ice mass in just 20 years.
The glaciologist Francisco Navarro ensures that the rate of retreat of Greenland’s peripheral glaciers has doubled. Proof of this are the NASA images, where you can see how the Greenland ice mass is changing. Thousands of glaciers are melting in coastal areas.
However, it is the small glaciers that have done this more response to global warmingemphasizes the glaciologist Javier Lapazaran. “They contribute more to sea level rise,” he adds.
This phenomenon was also observed at higher intensity, In Alaska. He thawingcaused by global warming, exacerbates the risk of meteorological phenomena Extremes, but the main risk is sea level rise. And all of that will depend on what we do to stop emitting greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.
“If the most optimistic scenarios came true, we would be talking about a sea level rise of less than a meter, but there are much worse scenarios, namely a rise of several meters this century,” adds the glaciologist. Jaime Otero. As global temperatures rise, Antarctica, by far the largest ice mass on Earth, will come into play.
In this sense, Navarro recognizes that although Greenland has one-ninth of the ice in Antarctica, it contributes as much or more than Antarctica. It is urgent to take action, he emphasizes.
“There is an urgent need to implement measures because it will take years or decades for all of these measures to be truly noticeable.” Scientific studies agree that if temperatures continue to rise at the current rate, the consequences would be catastrophic.