Ice World: Alpine glaciers are melting faster | Science News

Global warming is causing Alpine glaciers to melt faster and faster. Glaciology professor Olaf Eisen from Bremen said that by the end of this century at the latest, there will be no more glaciers in the Alps below 3,500 meters. However, he assumes – especially after last year’s hot summer – that this process will go faster, he told the dpa news agency.

While the glaciers were constantly retreating, now – after extreme years like 2022 – holes appear in the glaciers’ tongues. “If the process continues like this, there will be no glacier left on Ötzal in 30 years.” Ötztal is a region in Tyrol that is popular with mountain climbers.

Don’t stop, just slow down

Iron gives alpine glaciers at altitudes of 4,000 or 4,500 meters about another 100 years before they are likely to largely disappear. Glacier melt cannot be stopped at the moment, but it can be mitigated, according to the expert from the Alfred Wegener Institute at the Helmholtz Center for Polar and Marine Research.

Even if the current level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere remains stable – which it is not – glaciers around the world will lose 50 percent of their mass by 2100. But if carbon dioxide emissions continue at current levels, there is a risk of a loss of 80 to 90 percent. percent. Therefore, if carbon dioxide emissions can be reduced to zero, glacier retreat can be reduced, according to Eisen.

Glaciers can grow again

If carbon dioxide can be removed from the atmosphere in the long term, glaciers may grow back. “But it’s not technically possible right now, and it probably won’t be possible in the next 20 years either.”

That is why the professor of glaciology says clearly: “We have to get rid of fossil energy so that we can stop the increase in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and reduce it again in the long term. If we start doing this in 2050, it will be too late for the glaciers.

There are four glaciers in Germany: the North Schneeferner and Höllentalferner in the Zugspitze and the Watzmanngletscher and Blaueis in the Berchtesgaden Alps. The southern Schnaverner was deprived of its glacier status last fall. The Bavarian Academy of Sciences has announced that because the glacier has been severely lost, it is likely that it is no longer flowing.