Scientists say this glacier in the Alps may survive if warming capped

Bangkok Post Group

Swiss scientists say the biggest glacier in the Alps could yet be partially saved if global warming is capped below two degrees Celsius, although significant ice loss is now inevitable. - REUTERS

Transcript

00:00With glaciers around the globe disappearing faster than ever,

00:04Swiss scientists say this one in the Alps could be partially saved.

00:09Though only if global warming is capped below two degrees Celsius.

00:14And even then, scientists say significant ice loss at the Great Aletsch Glacier,

00:18which is over 12 miles long and weighs billions of tons, is now inevitable.

00:23Matthias Huss is the director of glacier monitoring Switzerland.

00:27So our new model results show that in Switzerland we are going to

00:32lose at least 70 percent of the total ice volume and this is the very best case

00:38if we emit no further CO2 after 2050.

00:43The Swiss Academy of Sciences modeled how different scenarios could affect the Alps.

00:47Without any climate mitigation, they say the three distinct tributaries that merge

00:52into a vast river of ice would vanish, leaving behind a deep grey valley.

00:57But if global warming holds below two degrees, glaciers above about 10,000 feet in elevation,

01:03like the Aletsch Glacier, could be preserved.

01:06Though it would be much shorter and thinner.

01:09The research did not say which was the more likely scenario.

01:13In the worst case, though, we may lose all glaciers in Switzerland by 2100.

01:20So it will be somewhere in between.

01:22But it's very likely that almost all glaciers are going to be lost.

01:26And I sincerely hope that only at Aletsch Glacier, at this high elevation,

01:31we may be able to preserve some of the ice.

01:34According to a UN report,

01:36the last three-year period has seen the largest glacial mass loss on record.

01:41If the glaciers are melting, and we're speaking more about the glaciers in the

01:45polar regions where the biggest ice masses are located, if these glaciers are melting,

01:50the global sea level is rising.

01:52And it may be rising by up to one meter until 2100, and even more at the longer term.

01:58More than half of the glaciers in the Alps are in Switzerland,

02:01where temperatures are rising by around twice the global average due to climate change.

02:06Their volume has fallen by almost 40 percent since 2000.

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