Urgent Climate Action Can Limit, But Not Prevent, Glacier Loss
Rapid action to slash fossil fuel consumption and greenhouse gas pollution could save tens of thousands of glaciers and prevent about an inch of sea level rise, a study published Thursday in Science finds. Even if global temperature increase, mainly caused by the extraction and combustion of fossil fuels, is limited to the Paris Agreement goal of 1.5°C (2.7°F) over preindustrial levels, 104,000 of the world’s more than 215,000 will melt completely, raising sea levels by just under 4 inches. “Any reduction in the temperature increase will have a substantial impact on sea-level rise and the loss of glaciers globally,” David Rounce, a Carnegie Mellon glaciology and engineering professor and lead author of the study, told the Washington Post. “No matter what, we’re going to lose a lot of the glaciers,” he told the AP. “But we have the ability to make a difference by limiting how many glaciers we lose.”
(Washington Post $, AP, The Guardian, CNN, NPR, Axios, The Independent, Le Monde, Al Jazeera, AFP)
(Climate Signals background: Glacier and ice sheet melt)
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