SWITZERLAND - The melting glaciers, shown in historical imagery, can be attributed to climate change.
Glaciers all over the world are suffering due to the climate crisis. Ecosystems are destroyed, local industries are devastated, and perhaps most importantly, a significant source of fresh water disappears as they melt.
Researchers have created a visual timeline of the glaciers in Switzerland for the first time using historical imagery. They discovered that the glaciers lost over half of their volume between 1931 and 2016. It was discovered that they lost yet another 12% of their volume just in the last six years.
Furthermore, every ten years during the 85 years that ended in 2016, the Swiss glaciers lost an area comparable to the size of Manhattan.
Present-Day Contrast
Scientists from the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research, together with those from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, conducted the analysis, which produced a startling visual contrast between the glaciers of Switzerland today and how they appeared almost a century ago.
As a result of the extreme heat that blanketed large portions of the Northern Hemisphere this summer, glaciologist, and study co-author Daniel Farinotti predicted that the glacier loss this year will be the worst yet.
Farinotti said that 2022 is a very extreme year. The worst-case scenario includes an exceptionally warm summer and a winter that produced very little snow. The losses experienced in 2003, which up until that point had been the "record year" in the negative sense for glacier mass loss, are expected to be greater this year, according to experts.
Read also: Melting Glaciers: Sign that Antarctica is Defrosting from the Bottom-up, Polar Scientist Warns
Impact on the Ecosystem
Ecosystem loss due to glacier loss affects both plants and animals. It also has an impact on local tourism and the aesthetics of the landscape. Importantly, as the ice recedes, glaciers lose their vital role as a source of fresh water, both for drinking and agriculture.
According to Farinotti, if glaciers completely vanished, different regions might experience problems with their water supplies, particularly during summers like the one we are currently experiencing.
Even if various countries meet the climate targets established during the 2015 Paris Agreement, according to Farinotti, scientists expect to see a further 60 percent loss in glacier mass mostly by end of the century.
He explained that if climate change were to proceed unchecked, the European Alps might end up being almost entirely ice-free, CNN reports.
Glaciers
Massive icebergs that move slowly makeup glaciers, which develop on land. They are composed of snow that has fallen and has been compressed over many centuries into ice. Due to the pull of gravity, they slowly descend.
The polar regions, including the Canadian Arctic, Greenland, and Antarctica, are home to the majority of the world's glaciers. Glaciers are also found in some mountainous regions that are closer to the equator. Some of the largest tropical glaciers can be found in South America's Andes Mountain range. Glaciers contain about 2% of the frozen water on Earth.
Related article: Scientists on Alert after Greenland Ice Melts Last Weekend Amid Warm Temperatures