Climate threat to 90% of Alpine glaciers
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Unchecked greenhouse gas emissions could see more than 90 percent of glaciers in the Alps disappear by the end of the century, scientists said yesterday in new research.
There are more than 4,000 glaciers dotted throughout the Alps, providing seasonal water to millions and forming some of Europe鈥檚 most stunning landscapes.
But as humans pump out more and more planet-warming gases through burning fossil fuels, construction, aviation and mega-farming, those mountainside ice sheets are in danger.
A team of researchers in Switzerland used cutting-edge climate models and paired them with the most sophisticated measurements of glaciers to date to compare how they fared under various emissions scenarios. Under a situation where greenhouse gas emissions peak within a few years and rapidly recede toward the century鈥檚 end 鈥 a scenario known among climatologists as RCP 2.6 鈥 they found that a third of Alpine glacier mass would survive.
However, under RCP 8.5 鈥 essentially a business-as-usual approach where man-made emissions continue to rise as the global population swells 鈥 the models turned up worrying results.
鈥淚n this pessimistic case, the Alps will be mostly ice free by 2100, with only isolated ice patches remaining at high elevation, representing 5 percent or less of the present-day ice volume,鈥 said Matthias Huss, a researcher at ETH Zurich and study co-author.
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