The 2023 Interconnected Disaster Risks report, which includes glaciers melting among its six interconnected risk tipping points, explains that risk tipping points are reached when the systems that humanity relies on cannot buffer risks and stop functioning like expected, mainly caused by human actions. Here are five concerning developments regarding our mountain glaciers melting:
Due to global warming, glaciers melt at double speed
Glaciers retreat when the ice mass that formed many years ago melts faster than snow can replace. Because of global warming, the world’s glaciers are melting at double the speed they had in the past two decades. Between 2000 and 2019, glaciers lost 267 gigatons of ice per year, roughly equivalent to the mass of 46,500 Great Pyramids of Giza. In a warming world, we are projected to lose around 50 per cent of glaciers (excluding Greenland and Antarctica) by 2100, even if global warming can be limited to 1.5°C.
Downstream floods increase when glaciers melt
As a glacier begins to retreat, its ice gradually melts and increases the amount of water flowing to the river basin. With more meltwater, the risk of flooding downstream increases. In some cases, this can lead to “glacial lake outburst floods”, in which a natural dam fails and suddenly releases meltwater with devastating consequences.
Freshwater availability will steadily decline
Eventually, the glacier experiences its highest amount of melting and produces the maximum volume of water runoff, known as “peak water”. After this point, freshwater availability will steadily decline. Peak water has already been passed or is expected to occur within the next ten years in basins dominated by small glaciers like those in Central Europe, western Canada or South America. Even the glaciers on the highest peaks, such as those in the high mountains of Asia, are predicted to reach peak water around the middle of this century.
1.9 billion people risk negative effects regarding water resources and livelihoods
Meltwater is often used to compensate for the lack of rain during dry seasons. As glaciers shrink, this potential is diminished, meaning that mountain communities and their downstream counterparts will have to radically shift how they manage water resources. In the Andes, where peak water has already passed for many glaciers, communities are grappling with the impacts of unreliable water sources from both the glaciers and climate change-induced changes in rainfall patterns. The loss of glaciers is also a loss of iconic features in many mountain areas that has several tangible and intangible negative consequences for livelihoods, economies and heritage.
Melting glaciers demand urgent action to cut greenhouse gas emissions
Glaciers are natural wonders and essential for the survival and well-being of many communities. Many will have to adapt to a warmer and more unpredictable climate with direct consequences for their livelihoods and their access to water if we do not manage to stay below the 1.5°C goal.
