In the 30 years since leaders first gathered to discuss how to limit climate change under the UN framework convention, the Earth has lost over 14 trillion tonnes of ice from mountain glaciers and ice sheets.
We stand on the cusp of major losses to polar ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica – changes happening much sooner than scientists’ previous worst-case scenarios. They spell the end for low-lying nations, and the polar indigenous peoples and many lifeforms evolved to thrive in these remote, frozen zones.
But they are also set to strike all of us. And it’s hard to imagine anywhere that will feel the force as acutely or on as vast a scale as Asia. While the impact of rising sea levels on major economic centres, including Hong Kong, Shanghai, Bangkok and Mumbai, has been the subject of study and adaptation action, Asia faces a double threat. It is also at the front line of the rapid deglaciation and loss of snowpacks across mountains.
While significant sea-level rises are likely to be a reality towards the second half of the 21st century, mountain deglaciation is a disaster well under way.
Global snow and ice provide fresh water for about 2 billion people. In connection with the first UN World Glacier Day on March 21, the World Glacier Monitoring Services estimates that we have lost 9 trillion tonnes of ice from mountains since records began in 1975. That’s the equivalent of a 25m-thick ice block the size of Germany.
Further loss of this “ecosystem service” will make some of our agriculture, energy supplies and communities unviable.
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