By Shirish B Pradhan
KATHMANDU: (May 29) More than twice as much global glacier mass will remain if countries restrict temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius, compared to the warming level of 2.7 degrees Celsius resulting from the current policies, says a new study released.
Glaciers are even more sensitive to global warming than previously estimated, and, if the world warms to 2.7 degrees Celsius compared to the pre-industrial levels, only 24 per cent of the present-day glacier mass will remain in contrast to preserving 54 per cent by limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, the study published in ‘Science’ suggests.
“These figures, however, are global, skewed mostly by the very large glaciers around Antarctica and Greenland. The glacier regions most important to human communities are even more sensitive, with several losing nearly all glacier ice already at 2 degrees Celsius,” a press release from the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) here says, quoting the study.
