A recent study reported in Nature Communications highlighted the loss of glaciers in the Arctic, which has been shown to be the fastest-warming place on Earth in recent decades. The increasing levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and human-caused climate change are significantly raising temperatures around the world. This now seems to be triggering the retreat of Earth's glaciers, many of which also happen to be important resources for people.
In this report, the study authors showed that about 91% of glaciers in the Svalbard region of the Arctic have shrunk significantly, with over 800 square kilometers of ice lost from the archipelago since 1985.
“The scale of glacier retreats over the past few decades is astonishing, almost covering the entire Svalbard. This highlights the vulnerability of glaciers to climate change, especially in Svalbard, a region experiencing rapid warming up to seven times faster than the global average," said corresponding study author Dr. Tian Li, a senior research associate at the University of Bristol.
The work also showed that calving, in which huge chunks of ice break off of glaciers, increased in 2016. The rates that year were double the average rate from 2010 to 2015. There were also huge increases in temperature around the world that year.
Work presented at UNESCO's first World Day for Glaciers has also shown that other glaciers are under threat. The researchers showed that glaciers in the Andes mountains are getting about 0.7 meters thinner every year, which is 35% faster than the average for other glaciers around the world.
Meltwater from these glaciers, which once built up and retreated in a seasonal cycle but are now simply retreating, are a source of drinking water for 90 million people in several counties including Bolivia, Ecuador, and Peru.
"Such a loss of ice across the Andes needs urgent attention as it will increase the stress on freshwater resources relied upon by communities and major cities downstream of the glaciers," noted Dr. Jeremy Ely of the University of Sheffield.
But glaciers around the world are continuing to get smaller because of climate change, and while it is more pronounced in some areas compared to others, no region is unaffected. The World Meteorological Association showed that all nineteen of the glacial regions of the planet underwent a net mass loss in 2024. This was the third year in a row that has happened.
The WMO suggested that many glaciers that can now be found in western Canada, the Caucasus, central and northern Europe, and New Zealand, "will not survive the 21st century."
Sources: University of Bristol, Nature Communications, University of Sheffield
