A report compiled by World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has revealed that the glaciers globally have lost a significant amount of ice in the past over seven decades.
The WMO report states the glaciers monitored by World Glacier Monitoring Service (WGMS) are losing sheen at a rapid pace.
The figures reveal that the value has reduced to +5.392 in 1950 to -27.123 in 2024. “The shift from +5.392 to -27.123 Meters Water Equivalent (MWE) indicates that the glaciers worldwide have lost about 32.5 MWE thickness on average during the last 74 years,” the report states.
As per the WGMS, the period 2022 to 2024 represents the most negative three-year glaciers mass balance on record. “Since 2022, the value of glaciers has shifted from -24.794 to -27.123 in 2024,” the report reveals.
This net loss of glacier mass is a clear sign that glaciers are melting significantly globally.
The loss of glaciers, according to the experts, is the outcome of climate change, particularly global warming, which increases melting and reduces snowfall accumulation.
The major impact due to the melting of glaciers will be water scarcity in the near future.
Pertinently, KNO has already reported that the melting of glaciers has gained pace in Jammu & Kashmir with the experts asserting that the region has lost nearly “30 percent of glaciers in the past 60 years and warned that 70 percent of them will recede by the end of this century if the prevailing pace continues.”
Earlier this year, Prof. Shakil Ahmad Romshoo, Vice-Chancellor of IUST and Head of the National Cryosphere Lab, University of Kashmir in an event organized by the Islamic University of Science and Technology (IUST), in collaboration with the Centre of Excellence (CoE) for Glacial Studies, University of Kashmir, titled & “Himalayan Cryosphere: Major Research Gaps and Shaping the Roadmap Ahead”, highlighted the alarming loss of approximately 30% of glacial mass over the past six decades and the significant decline in streamflow since the 1990s.
Prof. Romshoo stated, “The melting of glaciers under a changing climate is not only a scientific challenge but also a pressing policy issue that affects water availability, energy generation, and food production in South Asia. It is imperative that researchers, governments, and stakeholders work together to address these challenges.”
However, the experts stated that becoming carbon neutral was the only solution to preserve glaciers. “There are 18000 glaciers in Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh, but all of them are melting. The glaciers are melting in the entire Himalaya including J&K. In the past couple of years, the melting of glaciers has increased,” the experts said.
The melting of snowfall has increased as the temperature remains usually high, especially in the months of February, March.
Notably, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) confirmed that 2024 was the warmest year on record, based on six international datasets. The past ten years have all been in the Top Ten, in an extraordinary streak of record-breaking temperatures.
The experts have stated that with the increasing temperatures, the glaciers have been melting at a rapid pace and similarly, J&K too is losing 18-20 meters of a glacier every year.
“Until and unless we become carbon neutral, nobody can stop the melting of glaciers. The carbon emission is increasing, global emission is also high and in future it will be increased as per the study, but becoming carbon neutral only could help in stopping the melting of glaciers,” the experts said—(KNO)
