Saturday, Oct. 26, 2024
Are most glaciers growing?
The vast majority of glaciers have continued to shrink worldwide.
To maintain stability, snowfall must equal ice loss from processes like surface melt, wind erosion, and avalanches.
In most of the world, glaciers are shrinking due to warming and snowfall changes. By 1990, glaciers worldwide had lost 7% to 28% of their 1901 mass.
Glacier research dates back to the 1890s, while specific “reference glaciers” have been continuously tracked since 1950. 2010-2019 saw the highest loss since observations began. 2023 was the 36th year in a row that reference glaciers lost, rather than gained, ice.
A few have grown where precipitation exceeds melt, attributable to unusual weather due to climate change. However, studies indicate other glaciers that once exhibited growth succumbing to warming; another 2023 paper suggested the weakening stability of presently-growing glaciers.
Glaciers provide freshwater vital to entire ecosystems—their loss would spell serious consequences for humanity and nature.
This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.
Sources
- NOAA Climate Change: Mountain glaciers
- HAL Open Science Accelerated global glacier mass loss in the early twenty-first century
- World Glacier Monitoring Service ‘reference glaciers’ for mass balance
- Global and Planetary Change Norwegian mountain glaciers in the past, present and future
- NSIDC What is the Karakoram Anomaly?
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Fact briefs are bite-sized, well-sourced explanations that offer clear "yes" or "no" answers to questions, confusions, and unsupported claims circulating online. They rely on publicly available data and documents, often from the original source. Fact briefs are written and published by Gigafact contributor publications.
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Skeptical Science is a non-profit science education organization. Our goal is to remove a roadblock to climate action by building public resilience against climate misinformation. We achieve this by publishing debunking of climate myths as well as providing resources for educators, communicators, scientists, and the general public. Skeptical Science was founded and is led by John Cook, a Senior Research Fellow with the Melbourne Centre for Behaviour Change at the University of Melbourne.
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