World glaciers melting quicker

World glaciers melting quicker





    
January 2007  - Mountain 
glaciers around the world are melting more and more quickly, 
according to new data issued today that confirms the trend in 
accelerated ice loss over the past 25 years. 
Preliminary figures for 2005 show an average thinning of the 
ice on the majority of the world's glaciated mountain ranges 
of two-thirds of a meter (26 inches). 
The data on glacier change for 2005 was collected from 80 
glaciers by scientists all over the world and reported to the 
World Glacier Monitoring Service, WGMS, in Zurich. 
Since 1980, scientists have recorded continuous measurements 
of overall ice thickness change on 30 of these glaciers in 
nine mountain ranges, so these are considered to be the 
reference glaciers. 
The scientists report that since 1980 the average thickness 
loss of the 30 reference glaciers amounts to about 10.56 
meters (34 feet). 
Michael Zemp, a glaciologist and research associate at the 
World Glacier Monitoring Service said, "Today, the glacier 
surface is much smaller than in the 1980s, this means that the 
climatic forcing has continued since then." 
The Pasterze Glacier in the Austrian Alps photographed in 
1900. (Photo © Gesellschaft für ökologische Forschung courtesy 
Greenpeace) 
By altering the global energy balance, changes in the 
composition of the Earth's atmosphere force the climate to 
change, so scientists call them climate forcing mechanisms. 
Human activities over the past 250 years have emitted carbon 
dioxide and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, where 
they trap solar radiation close to the planet, raising the 
global temperature. 
"The recent increase in rates of ice loss over reducing 
glacier surface areas leaves no doubt about the accelerated 
change in climatic conditions," said Zemp. 
The long-term monitoring of glacier mass produces one of the 
most essential variables required for the regular assessment 
reports on global climate monitoring. 
The average annual ice loss for the reference glaciers since 
the year 2000 was about two-thirds of meter each year. 
This amount of ice loss is 1.6 times more than the average of 
the 1990s and three times the loss rate of the 1980s. 
The Pasterze Glacier in the Austrian Alps photographed from 
the same location in 2000 shows how much the glacier has 
retreated in 100 years. (Photo © Gesellschaft für ökologische 
Forschung courtesy Greenpeace) 
Comprehensive data for the year 2006 are not yet available, 
but as it was one of the warmest years in many parts of the 
world, it is expected that the downward trend in ice mass will 
continue. 
UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner called the report "the 
most authorative, comprehensive and up-to-date information on 
glaciers worldwide." 
"The findings confirm the science of human-induced climate 
change, confirmation that will be further underlined when the 
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change unveil their next 
report on February 2," Steiner said. 
These findings should strengthen the resolve of governments to 
act now to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and put in place 
the medium to longer term strategies necessary to avert 
dangerous climate change," he said. 
The new preliminary findings also underlines the importance of 
this year's June 5 World Environment Day theme, Melting Ice - 
A Hot Topic. The main international celebrations, which 
coincide with International Polar Year, will be held in 
Norway. 
Water filled melt-pits dot the surface of Bering Glacier's 
stagnant medial moraine. Chugach National Forest, Alaska. 
(Photo courtesy USGS) 
Worldwide collection of information about ongoing glacier 
changes was initiated in 1894 with the foundation of the 
International Glacier Commission at the 6th International 
Geological Congress in Zurich, Switzerland. Then, scientists 
hoped that long-term glacier observations would give insight 
into processes of climatic change such as the formation of ice 
ages. 
Today, the World Glacier Monitoring Service collects 
standardized observations on changes in mass, volume, area and 
length of glaciers with time (glacier fluctuations), as well 
as statistical information on the distribution of perennial 
surface ice in space (glacier inventories). 
Such glacier fluctuation and inventory data are high priority 
key variables in climate system monitoring. The most 
information is found for the Alps and Scandinavia, where long 
and uninterrupted records are available. 
To view the Greenpeace photo feature, the Global Retreat of 
Glaciers, click here.