Austrian glaciologists have recently released a report that 87 out of 90 glaciers in the Alps have shown signs of a meltdown. Now, scientists predict that the glaciers would be totally obliterated by the end of this century.
Since 1900, the Alpine glaciers have already shown some signs of melting and have lost half of their volume. By 1980, the melting even sped up, and according to researchers, all of the ice will be gone by 2100. According to DW, Carl-Friedrich Schleussner, a climate physicist who works for the NGO Climate Analytics, said that the cause of the meltdown is the heat-trapping pollution present in the air.
Schleussner added that reducing global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius might lessen the negative effects of climate change but not for the case of the alpine glaciers. Even if the greenhouse gas emissions would be reduced to zero immediately, it still won't stop the meltdown.
MB reported that there would be a few chunks of ice that would remain on the iconic mountain range, but scientists say that the glaciers' demise is inevitable. The warm climate would also stop new glaciers to form in the next few centuries to come.
A team from the Austrian Alpine Association published a report this April 2017. They reported that in 2016, an average Alpine glacier has melted down to about 46.6 feet and 10 of the glaciers receded to more than 100 feet. Also, in western Austria's, the Hornkees Glacier was receded to about 213 feet.
Austria's Institute for Meteorology and Geodynamics (ZAMG) even stated that the thinning of the glaciers are becoming visible even without the use of instruments. "It's so tangible. You can see the changes from year to year, even month to month, every time you visit the glacier," ZAMG glaciologist Anton Neureiter told German broadcaster, Deutsche Welle.
About 68.7 percent of the Earth's freshwater supply are frozen in icecaps and glaciers while 31.3 percent come from non-polar sources such as rivers and lakes. If the non-polar glacier sources melt too, it would greatly increase water levels affecting millions of people living in coastal regions and low-level areas.
