The United States’ National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) said nearly a third of the world’s 215,000 glaciers – not counting those of Antarctica and Greenland – are threatened with melting.
This research showed that even if we are in the most optimistic scenario of limiting global temperatures to 1.5°C, more than half of these large ice sheets could disappear from the surface of the earth by the end of this century.
It is expected that at least 50,000 glaciers, a quarter of the existing ones, could melt by the middle of this century, transforming the lives of 1.9 billion people around the world who depend on them for drinking water and irrigation caused in several countries severe flooding.
Most affected will be the Alps and Pyrenees, which will initially be up to 70 percent smaller by 2050, with consequent rise in sea levels and warming of water due to temperature rise, such as the major global consequences.
These are large masses of ice that form in the upper parts of the mountains, are on the surface of the earth and slowly descend the slope in the form of a tongue and are closer to the poles, because they form in areas where it accumulates. more snow melts in winter than in summer.
Glaciers store more than 75 percent of the fresh water on planet Earth and are essential elements of the hydrological cycle as they serve as reserves accumulated by precipitation and also regulate mountain ecosystems.
According to NASA research, their most important attribute isn’t that they’re water, but that they’re part of the hydrological cycle, which isn’t exactly the same thing.
The director and researcher of the Institute of Geosciences of Barcelona, Santiago Giralt, insisted that the carbon footprint must be reduced as much as possible, in addition to sustainable consumption, and called for alternatives to political and economic structures to address the not to overexploit planets .
Experts from the University of Iceland also assured that the disappearance of glaciers leads to water insecurity for millions of people, and their retreat increases the frequency of glacier risks, as well as flooding from floods and landslides.
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