Can we save what will be left of the remaining glaciers? Obviously, not without a monumental effort.
by Robert J. Burrowes
Something is causing the worlds glaciers and mountain
ice fields to melt. And, despite your first thought, it is not the ongoing
climate catastrophe.
It does not matter where on Earth the glaciers and
mountain ice fields are located, they are all melting. Moreover, the projected
timeframe for some of them to disappear altogether is ‘imminently’; that is,
within years. And for the rest: a few decades (although that projection is
being routinely revised downwards, depending on the glacier).
Photographer Reuben Wu used a drone carrying blue LED lights to illuminate Peru's Pastoruri glacier.REUBEN WU / COURTESY COORS LIGHT |
Why? Because the most recent research suggests that
beneath the ocean surface glaciers may be melting ten to 100 times faster than
previously believed. This is because, until now, scientists had a limited
understanding of what happens underwater at the point where glaciers meet the
sea. By using a combination of radar, sonar and time-lapse photography, a team
of researchers has now provided the first detailed measurements of the
underwater changes over time. Their findings suggest that the theories
currently used to gauge glacier change are underestimating glacier ice loss.
‘The overall trend of glacier retreat around the world is due to both warming
air and warming oceans’, observed Professor David Sutherland, an oceanographer at the University of Oregon and
lead author of the new study. Glaciers are getting ‘eaten away on both ends’.
According to Professor Rebecca Jackson, an oceanographer at Rutgers University and co-author
of the study: ‘The theory we’ve been relying on for these melt rates is wrong.
We should be able to predict melt rates based on ocean conditions... [but]
they’re not at all related in the way we expected.’ Beyond air and water
temperatures, ‘ocean salinity, currents and the glacier’s shape can all play a
role in influencing tidewater glacier melt’. See ‘Direct observations
of submarine melt and subsurface geometry at a tidewater glacier’and ‘Oceans Are Melting Glaciers
from Below Much Faster than Predicted, Study Finds’. These findings of rapid glacier melt confirm earlier
research, touched on below, although the variables melting high mountain
glaciers are different to those melting ones that terminate at sea level.
So how many glaciers are there and what is their
status?
According to the Randolph Glacier Inventory (RGI), the
most reliable estimate of the number of glaciers in the world is 198,000. These
glacierscover 726,000 square kilometres, that is, 0.5% of the Earth’s land
surface. See the Randolph Glacier Inventoryand‘Mapping the World’s
Glaciers’.
The Global Land Ice Measurements
from Space (GLIMS) project is
designed to monitor the world’s glaciers primarily using data from optical
satellite instruments. Glacier inventories are a specific technique for mapping
glacier attributes, such as area, length, slope, aspect, terminal environment
(calving into the sea or a lake, or terminating on dry land), elevation, and
glacier classification. See ‘Mapping the World’s
Glaciers’. There are many
types of glacier. For an extensive (and stunning) selection of photos of
glaciers, illustrating many aspects of these majestic ice formations, see the ‘Glaciers online
Photoglossary’.
So, from north to south, what is the status of the
world’s glaciers?
Glaciers in the North
As you would expect, the vast ice masses in the Arctic
– which consists of the Arctic Ocean, adjacent seas, and parts of Alaska
(United States), Finland, Greenland (Denmark), Iceland, Northern Canada,
Norway, Russia and Sweden – include many glaciers.
While there are no glaciers in the Arctic Ocean itself
(because it has no landmass), the glaciers in places like Greenland, North
America, Russia and western Europe are melting rapidly.
A recent study, for example, confirmed the rapid
melting of Greenland’s glaciers: ‘The recent deglaciation of Greenland is a
response to both oceanic and atmospheric forcings. From 2000 to 2010, ice loss
was concentrated in the southeast and northwest margins of the ice sheet, in
large part due to the increasing discharge of marine-terminating outlet
glaciers, emphasizing the importance of oceanic forcing.’ See ‘Accelerating changes in ice mass within Greenland,
and the ice sheet’s sensitivity to atmospheric forcing’and ‘The Greenland Ice Sheet Is
Melting at Astonishing Rate’.
But Greenland is not the only place in the far north
where glaciers are melting rapidly. For a snapshot of glacier melt in other
regions, see ‘Melting glaciers threaten to
inundate Russia’s Far North and Siberia’,‘Glaciers in the Canadian
High Arctic are melting at an unprecedented rate’, ‘Graphic: Dramatic glacier
melt [in Alaska]’, ‘Sweden’s Highest Peak, a
Melting Glacier, Is No Longer the Nation’s Tallest’ and ‘The Devdoraki Glacier in the
Georgian Caucasus Keeps Collapsing’.
Glaciers in the Himalaya
Substantial glacial melt in the Himalaya has been
evident for a long time. By 2011, glacier melt in the Nepalese Himalaya, for
example, had already created a ‘spattering’ of 1,600 high altitude glacier
lakes that threatened communities living ‘downstream’. For example, if the Imja
glacier lake ‘breaks through its walls of glacial debris, known as moraine, it
could release a deluge of water, mud and rock up to 60 miles away. This would
swamp homes and fields with a layer of rubble up to 15m thick, leading to the
loss of the land for a generation. But the question is when, rather than if.’
See ‘Watching a glacier die at
Imja Lake’ and ‘Glacier lakes: Growing
danger zones in the Himalayas’.
A 2013 study by a University of Milan team led by a
Nepali scientist found that ‘some glaciers on or around Mount Everest had
shrunk by 13% in the last 50 years with the snow line 180 metres higher than it
was 50 years ago. The glaciers are disappearing faster every year’, the report
noted, ‘with some smaller glaciers now only half the size they were in the
1960s’. See ‘Glacier response to climate
trend and climate variability in Mt. Everest region (Nepal)’ and ‘Most glaciers in Mount
Everest area will disappear with climate change – study’.
And a study done in 2015 concluded that the estimated
5,500 glaciers in the Hindu Kush-Himalayan (HKH) region will likely experience
‘continued and possibly accelerated mass loss from glaciers... given the
projected increase in temperatures,’ according to Joseph Shea, a glacier
hydrologist at the International Centre for
Integrated Mountain Development
in Nepal, and leader of the study published in The Cryosphere, the journal of the European Geosciences Union (EGU).
See ‘Most glaciers in Mount
Everest area will disappear with climate change – study’.
But the latest word comes from the comprehensive and
authoritative 2019 report The Hindu Kush Himalaya
Assessment: Mountains, Climate Change, Sustainability and People, requested by the eight nations – Afghanistan,
Pakistan, China, India, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Myanmar – the mountains
span, and involving more than 200 scientists working on the report over five
years (with another 125 experts peer reviewing their work). The scientists
examined the hyper-complex 3,500 kilometres-long Hindu Kush Himalayan system
where glaciers feed the Ganges, the Indus, the Yellow River, the Mekong and the
Irrawaddy, among ten major river systems. Directly and indirectly, these
glaciers supply1.65 billion people with clean air, food, energy and work. See ‘Himalayan glaciers on the
eve of destruction’.
Summarizing the report, Pepe Escobar explains: ‘The
path towards environmental disaster is eerily straightforward. Melting glaciers
flow into rivers and lakes. Bursting lakes inevitably translate into more
floods. And that means extra glacier runoff into major rivers, more flooding
and inevitable destruction of crops.’ See ‘Himalayan glaciers on the
eve of destruction’.
The conclusion to be drawn from this report is simple:
‘Even radical climate change action won’t save glaciers, endangering 2 billion
people.’ See ‘A third of Himalayan ice cap
doomed, finds report’.
Glaciers at the Equator
At the Equator, glaciers are under siege. Glaciers at
the Equator? you might ask.
Yes indeed. Mt. Kilimanjaro, which has three distinct
volcanic cones – Kibo at 5,895 metres (19,340 ft), Mawenzi at 5,149 metres
(16,893 ft) and Shira at 4,005 metres (13,140 ft) of which the latter two are
extinct with Kibo dormant – is the highest mountain in Africa and the highest
free-standing mountain in the world. It rises out of the Great Plains of East
Africa almost on the Equator. At over 19,000 feet, this mountain was once
covered in glaciers, proving an awe-inspiring sight to those who saw it.
However, glacial melt on Kilimanjaro is accelerating
and a 2013 report noted that Kilimanjaro’s shrinking northern glaciers, thought
to be 10,000 years old, could disappear by 2030. The entire northern ice field,
which holds most of Kilimanjaro’s remaining glacial ice, lost more than 4
million cubic meters of ice between 2000 and 2013, representing a volume loss
of approximately 29 percent during that period with a loss in total surface
area of 32 percent. In 2012, the ice field split in two, revealing ancient lava
that may not have seen the sun for millennia. See ‘Kilimanjaro’s Shrinking
Glaciers Could Vanish by 2030’.
The southside glaciers should last a little longer.
The latest report, based largely on an analysis of
NASA Earth Observatory satellite data in 2019, conducted by scientists at the
University of Massachusetts, simply confirms earlier documented if irregular
trends: ‘The long rains (Masika) of 2019 are concluding with virtually no snow
accumulation on Kilimanjaro glaciers.’
More ominously, ‘Absent a major event bringing
sufficient snow (e.g. 30-50 cm) to reduce solar radiation penetration, the
forthcoming extended dry season will probably begin with a snow-free crater. As
a result, ablation of both horizontal and vertical glacier surfaces is
likely to be dramatic in the months ahead.’ See ‘Kilimanjaro Climate & Glaciers’.
If you would like to see some spectacular photos of
remaining glaciers and remnant glaciers on Mt Kilimanjaro as they were in 2016,
you can see them in Ian van Coller’s limited edition art book ‘Kilimanjaro: The Last
Glacier’ or see them in a ‘flip through’ video.
Glaciers in Southern Latitudes
Like glaciers elsewhere, those in southern latitudes
are melting rapidly. Recent research confirms the rapid demise of glaciers in
the icefields of Patagonia, located in the high Andes atop Chile and Argentina,
where glacial retreat is occurring ‘at a non-glacial pace’. The North
Patagonian Icefield feeds ice to 30 significant outlet glaciers, of which the San
Rafael Glacier is ‘the fastest-moving glacier in Patagonia’ and ‘one of the most actively calving
glaciers in the world’.
The South Patagonian Icefield, more than triple the
size of its northern counterpart, includes the Jorge Montt Glacier which terminates
in an ‘iceberg-choked fjord’ as a result of the glacier’s rapid disintegration
and retreat. The Upsala Glacier has been retreating ever since documentation
began in 1810. For photos and a video, see ‘Melting Beauty: The
Icefields of Patagonia’.
One extensive study revealed that 90.2% of Patagonian
glaciers shrank between 1870 and 2011 with all regions suffering extensive
glacier loss. Notably, however, annual rates of shrinkage across the Patagonian
Andes ‘increased in each time segment analysed (1870-1986, 1986-2001,
2001-2011), with annual rates of shrinkage twice as rapid from 2001-2011 as
from 1870-1986’. See ‘Shrinking Patagonian
Glaciers’.
Elsewhere in the southern hemisphere, glaciers in New
Zealand, including the famous Fox, Franz Josef and Tasman glaciers, are also in
retreat. See ‘New Zealand’s glaciers are
shrinking’.
Glaciers in Antarctica
As with the Antarctic itself, glaciers are melting at
an accelerating rate generating a near-endless sequence of dramatic news
headlines, as one glacier after another attracts attention due to the
extraordinary nature of the changes, with the latest research showing affected
areas losing ice five times faster than in the 1990s, with more than 100m of
thickness gone in some places. See ‘“Extraordinary thinning” of
ice sheets revealed deep inside Antarctica’.
One recent analysis of satellite data has found
‘extreme’ changes are underway at eight of Antarctica’s major glaciers as
‘unusually warm ocean water slips in under their ice shelves’. The warmer water
is ‘eating away at the glaciers’ icy grasp on the seafloor. As a result, the
grounding line – where the ice last touches bedrock – has been receding by as
much as 600 feet per year’. See ‘Net retreat of Antarctic
glacier grounding lines’and ‘“Extreme” Changes Underway
in Some of Antarctica’s Biggest Glaciers’.
For example, Pine Island Glacier is an immense glacier
on the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. It is one of the least stable ofglaciers –
quickly retreating and losing massive amounts of ice – accounting for about 20
percent of the ice sheet’s total ice flow to the ocean. Every year Pine Island
Glacier loses 45 billion tons (40.8 billion metric tons) of ice. See ‘Photo Gallery: Antarctica’s
Pine Island Glacier Cracks’.
Since 2001, Pine Island Glacier has calved six huge
icebergs but, ominously, the rate of calving is increasing. Following major
calvings in January 2001, November 2007, December 2011 and August 2015, in
September 2017 it calved an iceberg 4.5 times the size of Manhattan and, just
one year later, was poised for another – and even larger – calving as a 30
kilometre rift appeared in its centre ‘where the ice shelf touches warmer ocean
waters that are melting it from underneath’. See ‘Huge Iceberg Poised to Break
Off Antarctica’s Pine Island Glacier’.
Meanwhile, the Thwaites Glacier, also in West
Antarctica, is disintegrating. According to a recent NASA-led study ‘A gigantic
cavity – two-thirds the area of Manhattan and almost 1,000 feet (300 meters)
tall – growing at the bottom of Thwaites Glacier in West Antarctica is one of
several disturbing discoveries.’ See ‘Huge Cavity in Antarctic
Glacier Signals Rapid Decay’.
While the ongoing destruction of Antarctic glaciers
already guarantees sea level rise of considerable magnitude, even if emissions
of carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide were halted today, there will be
other climate feedback effects. Oceanographers have detected a trend of
decreasing salinity in Antarctic waters fed by ice sheet melt: This affects the
density of the deep, very cold waters that drive key ocean currents that affect
climate at the surface. Moreover, increasing freshwater at the edge of the ice
sheet ‘could also disrupt the timing of biological cycles... starting with
phytoplankton – the critical base of the Antarctic food web’. See ‘“Extreme” Changes Underway
in Some of Antarctica’s Biggest Glaciers’.
Can We Save the Glaciers?
A joint research project conducted by scientists at
the Universities of Bremen and Innsbruck concluded that ‘contemporary glacier
mass is in disequilibrium with the current climate, and 36 ± 8% mass loss is
already committed in response to past greenhouse gas emissions. Consequently,
mitigating future emissions will have only very limited influence on glacier
mass change in the twenty-first century. No significant differences between 1.5
and 2 K warming scenarios are detectable in the sea-level contribution of
glaciers accumulated within the twenty-first century.’
In other words: ‘more than a third of the glacier ice
that still exists today in mountain glaciers can no longer be saved, even with
the most ambitious measures’. Calculated on the basis of a new, average car,
one kilogram of glacier ice is lost every five hundred meters traveled by that
single car. See ‘Limited influence of climate
change mitigation on short-term glacier mass loss’ and ‘Glacier mass loss passes the
point of no return, researchers report’.
So can we save what will be left of the remaining
glaciers? Obviously, not without a monumental effort. But before inviting your
involvement in an effort to do this, let me explain a point I made in the
opening paragraph: it is not the ongoing climate catastrophe that is destroying
Earth’s glaciers. It is human behaviour. The climate catastrophe, including the
melting of the glaciers, is being generated by our behaviour.
And we have control of that behaviour. Or, more
accurately, we can each control our own behaviour. And that means you have some
choices to make that will make a huge difference, for good or bad, depending on
what you decide.
If you wish to fight powerfully to save the remaining
glaciers, consider joining those participating in ‘The Flame Tree Project to Save Life on Earth’ which outlines a simple program to systematically
reduce your consumption and increase your self-reliance over a period of years.
Given the fear-driven violence in our world which also
generates the addiction of most people in industrialized countries to the
over-consumption that is destroying Earth’s biosphere – see ‘Love Denied: The Psychology
of Materialism, Violence and War’
– then consider addressing this directly starting with yourself – see ‘Putting Feelings First’ – and by reviewing your relationship with children.
See ‘My Promise to Children’ and ‘Nisteling: The Art of Deep
Listening’. For fuller
explanations, see ‘Why Violence?’ and ‘Fearless Psychology and Fearful Psychology: Principles and Practice’.
If you wish to campaign strategically to defend the glaciers
then consider joining those working to halt the climate catastrophe and end
military activities of all kinds, including war, as well. See Nonviolent Campaign Strategy which includes a comprehensive list of the strategic
goals necessary to achieve these outcomes in ‘Strategic Aims’.
In those cases where corrupt or even electorally
unresponsive governments are leading the destruction of the biosphere – by
supporting, sponsoring and/or engaging in environmentally destructive practices
– it might be necessary to remove these governments as part of the effort. See Nonviolent Defense/Liberation
Strategy.
You might also consider joining the global network of
people resisting violence in all contexts, including against the biosphere, by
signing the online pledge of ‘The People’s Charter to
Create a Nonviolent World’.
Or, if none of the above
options appeal or they seem too complicated, consider committing to:
The Earth Pledge
Out of love for the Earth and all of its creatures,
and my respect for their needs, from this day onwards I pledge that:
1. I will listen deeply to children(see explanation above)
2. I will not travel by plane
3. I will not travel by car
4. I will not eat meat and fish
5. I will only eat organically/biodynamically grown
food
6. I will minimize the amount of fresh water I use,
includingby minimizing my ownership and use of electronic devices
7. I will not buy rainforest timber
8. I will not buy or use single-use plastic, such as
bags, bottles, containers, cups and straws
9. I will not use banks, superannuation (pension)
funds or insurance companies that provide any service to corporations involved
in fossil fuels, nuclear power and/or weapons
10. I will not accept employment from, or invest in,
any organization that supports or participates in the exploitation of fellow
human beings or profits from killing and/or destruction of the biosphere
11. I will not get news from the corporate media
(mainstream newspapers, television, radio, Google, Facebook, Twitter…)
12. I will make the effort to learn a skill, such as
food gardening or sewing, that makes me more self-reliant
13. I will gently encourage my family and friends to
consider signing this pledge.
Do all these options sound unpalatable?Prefer
something requiring less commitment? You can, if you like, do as most sources
suggest: nothing (or its many tokenistic equivalents). I admit that the options
I offer are for those powerful enough to comprehend and act on the truth. Why?
Because there is so little time left and I have no interest in deceiving people
or treating them as unintelligent and powerless.See ‘Human Extinction by 2026? A
Last Ditch Strategy to Fight for Human Survival’.
So, in a nutshell: Are you willing to fight to save
the glaciers (and preserve the biosphere)? Then remember this: The only way to
fight is for you to reduce your consumption and to help persuade others, one
way or another, to do so as well. Nothing else can work.
Biodata: Robert J. Burrowes
has a lifetime commitment to understanding and ending human violence. He has
done extensive research since 1966 in an effort to understand why human beings
are violent and has been a nonviolent activist since 1981. He is the author of ‘Why Violence?’ His email address is flametree@riseup.net and his website is here.
He is a frequent contributor to Global Research.
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