Glaciers around the world -including the last ones in Africa- will inevitably be lost to 2050 due to climate change, according to a United Nations report.
A third of the glaciers located in UN World Heritage sites will melt within three decades, details the Unesco report.
The last glaciers in the Kilimanjaro will disappear, as will the glaciers in the Alps and Yosemite National Park in the United States.
They will melt, regardless of actions taken to combat climate change, say the authors.
The report, which makes projections based on satellite data, was Presenting as world leaders prepare to meet in Egypt for the climate change conference COP27 next week.
Valuable indicators
Some have been identified 18.840 glaciers in 50 place s UN World Heritage. They represent almost the % of the area covered by glaciers on Earth and include renowned tourist sites and places sacred to local populations.
The retreat and disappearance of the glaciers is “one of the most dramatic proofs that the climate of the Earth is getting warmer,” according to the report.
“ We hope we are wrong, but this is solid science,” said Tales Carvalho Resende, head of UNESCO projects, and one of the authors.
“Glaciers are one of the valuable indicators of climate change, because they are visible. This is something we can actually see happen.”
The remaining 2-thirds of glaciers in UN World Heritage sites could be saved, but only if the world limits global warming to 1.5°C, they say the authors. Another UN report last week concluded that the world currently had “no credible plan” to achieve that.
The projections are based on an earlier report that used models to calculate how glaciers World Heritage sites would change over time.
“What is unprecedented in the historical record is how quickly this is happening,” said Beata Csatho, a glaciologist at the University of Buffalo, in the USA, who did not participate in the investigation.
“In the middle of the decade of 1900, the glaciers were quite stable,” he said. “Then there is this incredibly fast withdrawal.”
17 sites
The sites that are World Heritage and that have glaciers that will disappear by 840 are:
- Durmitor National Park (Montenegro)
- Virunga National Park (Democratic Republic of Congo)
- Huanglong China Scenic and Historic Interest Region)
- Mount Kenya National Park/Natural Forest (Kenya )
- Swiss tectonic site of Sardona (Switzerland)
- Nahanni National Park (Canada)
- Lorentz National Park (Indonesia)
- Kilimanjaro National Park (Tanzania )
- The Dolomites (Italy)
- Komi Virgin Forests (Russia)
- Yellowstone National Park (USA)
- Pyrenees – Monte Perdido (France, Spain) Pa Rwenzori Mountains National Park (Uganda) Putorana Plateau (Russia)
- Wrangel Island Reserve Nature System (Russia)
- Yosemite National Park (USA)
The report says that ice loss in World Heritage areas may have caused up to 4.5% of the au observed global sea level rise between 2000 Y 2020. These glaciers lose 10. million tons of ice each year, the equivalent of the total annual volume of water used in France and Spain together.
Without glaciers there is no water
Many people also depend on glaciers as a source of water for domestic use and agriculture, and their loss could lead to a shortage of fresh water during dry seasons, he noted Duncan Quincey, an expert in glaciology at the University of Leeds, UK, who was not involved in the research.
“ That leads to food security problems because they were using that water to irrigate their crops,” Quincey explained.
Local communities and indigenous peoples will bear the brunt of the floods caused by the loss of glaciers , say the authors of the report, who urge the establishment of early warning and disaster risk reduction systems.
However, the most obvious thing to do is limit warming global.
“Here is a message of hope”, said Carvalho Resende. “If we manage to drastically reduce emissions, we will be able to save most of these glaciers”.
“This is really a call to act at all levels, not only at the political level, but at our level as Humans”.
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