Half of Earth’s Glaciers Could Melt Even If Key Warming Goal Is Met: Study

"New research suggests that even at 1.5 degrees Celsius of warming above preindustrial levels, the Earth will lose nearly half of its glaciers"

"A sweeping study of all the world’s glaciers outside of the Greenland and the Antarctic ice sheets has found that nearly half of them will melt by century’s end, even if the world meets its most ambitious global warming goal.

The study, published Thursday in the journal Science, finds that even with just 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) of warming above preindustrial levels, some 104,000 of the world’s more than 215,000 mountain glaciers and ice caps will melt, raising global sea levels by a little shy of 4 inches.

A rise of 1.5 degrees Celsius beyond preindustrial temperatures is now extraordinarily difficult to avoid, suggesting that a change of this magnitude may be nearly unstoppable. With every additional increment of temperature increase, the study finds, the outlook becomes worse."

Chris Mooney reports for the Washington Post January 5, 2023.

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"Study: Two-Thirds Of Glaciers On Track To Disappear By 2100" (AP)