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UN: A third of the world’s glaciers ‘will disappear’ by 2050, including all of Yellowstone and Yosemite
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UN: A third of the world’s glaciers ‘will disappear’ by 2050, including all of Yellowstone and Yosemite
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Glaciers in one-third of the 50 World Heritage sites where they are found are set to disappear by 2050 even if planet-heating emissions are curbed, the United Nations warned in a report published Thursday.
Extant greenhouse gas pollution has locked in so much global warming that even if temperature rise is limited to 1.5°C above preindustrial levels—a goal the U.N. said last week is unattainable without “urgent system-wide transformation”—many of the world’s most prized glaciers, including those in Yellowstone and Yosemite national parks in the U.S. as well as in Tanzania’s Kilimanjaro National Park, “will disappear” by mid-century, according to the U.N. Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
Two-thirds of World Heritage site glaciers can be preserved “if emissions are drastically cut” and warming is capped at 1.5°C, says the study, prepared in partnership with the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN). Existing climate targets and policies are so weak that the planet is currently projected to be 2.1 to 2.9°C hotter by 2100.
“This report is a call to action,” UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay said in a statement. “Only a rapid reduction in our CO2 emissions levels can save glaciers and the exceptional biodiversity that depends on them.”
Referring to the U.N. climate summit in Egypt that starts on Sunday, Azoulay said: “COP27 will have a crucial role to help find solutions to this issue. UNESCO is determined to support states in pursuing this goal.”
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