Climate change with consequences Because the forests are burning, the glaciers are melting faster
The fact that glaciers are melting so quickly is alarming scientists. Forest fires are accelerating the trend. 2025 is therefore the "Year of Glacier Conservation".
17.01.2025, 00:00
dpa
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- The glacier melt is progressing, tens of thousands of glaciers are in danger.
- The consequences for humanity are incalculable.
- Drinking water could become scarce for millions of people.
- The consequences of melting glaciers also include rising sea levels.
- Forest fires accelerate the retreat of glaciers
- The UN has declared 2025 the "International Year of Glacier Conservation".
275,000 glaciers worldwide are in danger: the mass of glaciers is receding all over the world, in the polar regions and mountain ranges such as the Alps, Himalayas and Rocky Mountains - with unforeseeable consequences for billions of people. Forest fires are also accelerating the melting of glaciers, says glaciologist John Pomeroy from the University of Saskatchewan in Canada.
The United Nations has declared 2025 the "International Year of Glacier Conservation". Researchers leave no doubt as to the cause: it is climate change. Glaciers can only be saved if man-made greenhouse gases are reduced and climate change is limited. March 21 is World Glacier Day for the first time.
Algae growth intensifies melting
When soot from fires is deposited on glaciers, it darkens the ice, said Pomeroy. The glacier can only reflect half as much sunlight, absorbs more solar energy and melts faster. As long as smoke from the fires continues to reduce the intensity of the sun, melting will only increase by three percent. After the end of the fires, however, algae colonize the soot, for example, causing the surface to darken permanently, which leads to an average increase in melting of ten percent.
When glaciers disappear, the drinking water supply for millions of people and agriculture is threatened in some regions, according to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) in Geneva. In addition, the melting is already contributing 1 millimeter per year to sea level rise. If all the glaciers melted, the rise would be 32 centimeters, says Isabelle Gärtner-Roer from the Glacier Monitoring Service at the University of Zurich.
Rapid melting also threatens people - as happened in Nepal in 2021, for example, when a glacial lake burst its banks, swept away six bridges and buried fields and villages under 15 meters of sediment, said Neera Pradhan from the Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD).
