UNESCO, the United Nations cultural agency, monitors about 18,600 glaciers in 50 world heritage sites and said glaciers in a third of world heritage sites will disappear by 2050, regardless of the climate scenario applied. While the rest can be saved by keeping global warming below 1.5C relative to pre-industrial levels, in a business-as-usual emissions scenario, around 50 percent of these World Heritage glaciers could almost entirely disappear by 2100. “This report is a call to action. Only a rapid reduction in CO2 emission levels can save the glaciers and the extraordinary biodiversity that depends on them,” Audrey Azoulay, UNESCO director-general, said in a statement. He noted that the COP27 UN climate conference will have a critical role to play in helping to find solutions to this issue. Tourists stand outside an ice cave that is covered with protective material to prevent the ice from melting on the Rhône Glacier in Obergoms, Switzerland, on September 1. UNESCO warns that a third of glaciers in World Heritage Sites will disappear by 2050 due to global warming. (Denis Balibuse/Reuters) World Heritage glaciers, as designated by UNESCO, represent about 10 percent of the world’s glacier areas and include some of the world’s best-known glaciers, the loss of which is highly visible as they are focal points for global tourism.
Rocky Mountains at risk
The report says glaciers in Canada’s Rocky Mountain parks have lost 15.9 percent of their ice mass compared to 2000 levels, putting their future at risk. Canadian glaciologist John Pomeroy says UNESCO’s findings are similar to his own. View of Crowfoot Glacier near Banff National Park in Alberta. University of Saskatchewan glacier researcher John Pomeroy says Crowfoot is one of several glaciers in the Canadian Rockies at risk from climate change. (Axel Tardieu/CBC) “By 2050, if you went down the Icefields Parkway, through Banff and Jasper National Park, … you almost certainly wouldn’t be able to see glaciers on most of the current views where you see glaciers,” Pomeroy, Canada Water Resources Research Center and Climate Change at the University of Saskatchewan, he told CBC News on Thursday. “The Columbia Icefield will still be there, but glaciers like Peyto Glacier will be gone, Crowfoot will be gone, the remnants of the Victoria Glacier at the back of Lake Louise will be gone,” he said. “And [there will be] some ice at the top of the ice fields that should remain until the end of the century, depending on how things go.” Other glaciers can still be saved, Pomeroy said, but the level of challenge needed will depend on how much global warming there has been. “Warming by 1.5 C [target] it’s not impossible, but it would take very, very active action right now. Even if we miss that, and it’s 2 C instead of 3 C, that’s still a lot better.” WATCHES | Glaciers in Canadian Rockies face dire future, researcher says:
Canada’s Rocky Mountain glaciers are at risk of melting, researcher warns
As the UN warns that iconic glaciers around the world could disappear by 2050, University of Saskatchewan researcher John Pomery says Canada’s glaciers face a similar fate without urgent action on climate change.
Melting glaciers add to sea level rise
While droughts in Canada contributed to the melting of the glaciers, that was not the end of the climate-related impacts of the loss of landmarks. Melting ice in streams and rivers contributes to sea level rise and flooding in coastal communities, Pomeroy said, “so it’s problematic everywhere, as [the glaciers] disappear.” The UNESCO report’s lead author, Tales Carvalho, told Reuters that the World Heritage site’s glaciers lose an average of about 52 billion tonnes of ice each year – equivalent to the total annual volume of water used in France and Spain combined – and contribute to nearly 5 percent of global observed sea level rise. A glacier monitoring team climbs Switzerland’s Gries Glacier during a trip to check measuring equipment on September 2. UNESCO says many glaciers have been retreating at an accelerated rate since 2000. (Denis Balibuse/Reuters) UNESCO recommends that given the inevitable further shrinkage of many of these glaciers in the near future, local authorities should put glaciers at the center of policy by improving monitoring and research and implementing disaster risk reduction measures.
