Study Warns Half of Earth's Glaciers Could Vanish by 2100

(MENAFN) At least 50% of the planet's glaciers will vanish before century's end driven by accelerating climate change, Swiss scientists revealed Monday in findings published by Nature Climate Change.

The research indicates between 2,000 and 4,000 glaciers could disappear annually by mid-century as planetary temperatures escalate, media reported.

Present-day glacier loss stands at approximately 750 to 800 per year globally.

Scientists from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETH Zurich) project that under a 2.7C (36.86F) warming scenario—the current trajectory—four-fifths of Earth's 200,000-plus glaciers will cease to exist by 2100.

Restricting warming to 1.5C (34.7F), aligned with the Paris Climate Agreement, could safeguard roughly half of existing glaciers. A catastrophic 4C (39.2F) temperature increase would leave only 10% of glaciers intact.

"These contrasts illustrate how an ambitious climate policy can make an essential contribution to preserving glaciers," the researchers said.

Diverging from earlier investigations, this analysis examined glacier quantities alongside volume and surface measurements, emphasizing that small glacier elimination creates substantial localized consequences.

Glacier retreat accelerates most dramatically in areas containing numerous compact ice formations, including the Alps and the Caucasus, while massive ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica melt at comparatively slower rates, the study said.

Switzerland alone witnessed over 1,000 glacier disappearances across three decades, according to co-author Matthias Huss, a glaciologist participating in the investigation.

A glacier qualifies as vanished when surface area contracts below 0.01 square kilometers (1 hectare) or remaining mass declines beneath 1% of original volume, the study said.

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