A third of the UNESCO world heritage glaciers, which represent 10% of the Earth’s glacial surface, will disappear between this year and 2050 due to the increase in temperatures caused by climate change.
A report released this Thursday by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco) highlights that the world’s glacier heritage is in a worrying situation.
Every year an average of 58,000 million tons of ice is lost, equivalent to the total volume of water used by Spain and France, the report points out.
Climate change threatens to destroy protected places, such as the glaciers of Monte Perdido, in the Pyrenees, in France and Spain, or those of Los Alerces National Park, in Argentina, which lost 45.6% of their total mass compared to the year 2000.
Half of humanity depends on glacial surfaces as a source of water, whether for domestic use, agriculture or hydroelectric power, as well as being of great cultural, religious and tourist importance.
All the glaciers that are part of the UNESCO world heritage are seriously threatened and 60% of them have an “accelerated retreat” in their mass, according to the report.
This alarming melting causes 5% of global sea level rise, it adds.
The study offers a glimmer of hope: if global temperatures rise no more than 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels, the rest of the glacial surface of these protected sites could be saved.
UNESCO advocates the creation of an international fund to monitor and protect glaciers, greater support for scientific research and the design and development of alert and risk reduction measures in the face of natural disasters.
Source: TSF
