With current climate targets, there will be virtually no glaciers in central Europe by the end of the century. And even with stricter targets, they will have shrunk by 60%, according to an international study with Swiss participation.
Scientists led by David Rounce, from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh (USA), evaluated data on 215,547 glaciers around the world, according to this work published Thursday in the journal Science. On the temperature side, they simulated different scenarios with increases of between 1.5 and 4 degrees.
Results: with a rise of 3 degrees by 2100, the glaciers of central Europe will disappear completely. However, with the current climate objectives adopted internationally, the rise should reach 2.7 degrees.
With a rise of 1.5 degrees, the melting of glaciers in our latitudes would be around 60%, according to this study, to which scientists from the University of Fribourg, the WSL Institute and the ETH Zurich.
Water shortages
Worldwide, with the most optimistic scenario, glaciers would lose 26% of their mass compared to 2015. In the most pessimistic scenario, this figure would be 41%.
Glaciers would then remain only in the high mountains of Asia, in Alaska, in Russia, as well as in the Arctic and Antarctica. At the same time, the sea level would rise by 115 millimetres.
Matthias Huss, co-author of this work at ETHZ, points out that glaciers are natural reservoirs of fresh water. Their disappearance means that this water will no longer be available when it is needed most, during the dry summer months.
The resulting water shortages will have consequences for irrigation, drinking water, transport of goods, as well as fauna and flora, among others. “Even if we can no longer save the glaciers in their current state, every tenth of a degree of avoided warming counts,” concludes the researcher, who calls for stricter measures.
This article has been published automatically. Source: ats