UN report: One-third of World Heritage glaciers could disappear by 2050

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization released a report on November 3rd saying that due to global warming, some well-known glaciers located in world heritage areas may melt away by 2050, including glaciers in the Italian Dolomites, the United States Yellowstone and Yosemite National Parks, and Tanzania's Mount Kilimanjaro.

Reuters reported that there are about 18,600 glaciers distributed in 50 protected areas listed on the UNESCO World Heritage List. After monitoring, UNESCO concluded that no matter how fast the temperature rises, one-third of the glaciers will melt before 2050.

On August 17, 2013, climbers walked on the ice field near Mont Blanc, the main peak of the Alps. The Alps are known as the "Roof of Europe" and the "Water Tower of Europe" and have well-developed glaciers. Mont Blanc, located at the border between France and Italy, has an altitude of about 4,810 meters. (Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Wang Xiaojun)

Saving the remaining glaciers requires limiting global average temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. If current carbon emissions trends continue, about half of the glaciers in the World Heritage area could be nearly gone by 2100.

The glacier area located in the World Heritage Area accounts for about 10% of the global glacier area, including many world-famous glaciers, and their loss has attracted great attention.

The report's lead author, Talles Carvalho, told Reuters that glaciers in the World Heritage area lose an average of about 58 billion tons of ice each year, equivalent to the annual water consumption of France and Spain combined, and nearly 5% of the sea level rise observed globally is caused by glacier melting.

Carvalho believes that the most important measure to prevent large-scale melting of global glaciers is to drastically reduce carbon emissions.

UNESCO recommends that, given that the glaciers in the heritage area are bound to shrink further in the near future, local governments should focus on improving glacier monitoring and research methods when formulating policies, implementing measures to reduce disaster risks, and preventing glacial lake outbursts from causing floods in downstream areas.

Source: Xinhua News Agency