Rising temperatures could doom glaciers for centuries

• Warming by 3°C may permanently affect glaciers.
• Smaller glaciers might take hundreds of years to rebuild.
• Polar glaciers may need millennia for regeneration.

Scientists from the University of Bristol and the University of Innsbruck conducted research showing how a temperature rise of 3°C will affect glaciers. Even if the climate begins to cool, the rebuilding of smaller glaciers may take hundreds of years, while polar glaciers may need millennia for this.

The researchers presented a scenario where global temperatures temporarily exceed the 1.5°C limit, reaching 3°C before falling again. In this case, glaciers may lose 16% more mass than with a warming of 1.5°C, the limit adopted in the Paris Agreement.

Prof. Fabien Maussion from the University of Bristol emphasizes that the current climate policy leads to a temperature increase of 3°C.

The current climate policy sets Earth on a path that could lead to a temperature rise of 3°C. It is clear that these conditions are much more unfavorable for glaciers than the scenarios where we manage to maintain the 1.5°C limit, Maussion indicates, as reported by the Polish Press Agency.

Dr. Lilian Schuster highlights the importance of water from melting glaciers for local communities. "If glaciers start to rebuild, they will again store water in the form of ice—and that means less water will be flowing down the rivers. We call this effect the 'water trough,' in contrast to the 'water peak.' We found that roughly half of the watersheds we analyzed will experience some form of a water trough after 2100," the researcher emphasized.

Exceeding the 1.5°C threshold may seal the loss of glaciers for entire centuries. Prof. Maussion warns that many damages cannot be reversed, even if temperatures later fall.

The longer we delay reducing emissions, the more irreversible changes we burden future generations with, he adds.