Nairobi, 21 January
2010 – The last assessment on glacier melt
by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and
the World Glacier Monitoring Service
(WGMS) shows that the average annual melting
rate of glaciers doubled after the turn
of the millennium.
The report, 'Global
Glacier Changes: Facts and Figures', was
published by UNEP and WGMS in September
2008. It highlights global trends in glacier
retreat and shows that record losses were
posted in 2006 for a key network of reference
sites.
The previous record
loss in the year 1998 was already exceeded
three times in the years 2003, 2004 and
2006, with the losses in 2004 and 2006 being
almost twice as high as the previous 1998
record loss.
The global average annual
mass loss of more than half a metre during
the decade of 1996 to 2005 represents twice
the ice loss of the previous decade (1986–95),
and over four times the rate of the decade
from 1976 to 1985. Early measurements indicate
strong ice losses as early as the 1940s
and 1950s, followed by a moderate ice loss
between 1966 and 1985, and accelerating
ice losses until present.
Overall, the 2008 report
provided mounting evidence that climate
change is triggering a shrinking and thinning
of many glaciers worldwide, which may eventually
put at risk water supplies for hundreds
of millions of people.
When the report was
released in 2008, UNEP and WGMS emphasized
that data gaps exist in some vulnerable
parts of the globe, undermining the ability
to provide precise early warning for countries
and populations at risk.
The two organizations
said that while excellent data was available
for large parts of the world including Europe
and North America, the monitoring of glaciers
and ice caps in Central Asia, the Tropics
and the Polar Regions needed to be urgently
stepped up.
"Given the urgency
of climate change and the need for scientifically-based
adaptation strategies, it is now essential
to re-initiate interrupted long-term series
in strategically important regions. It is
equally urgent to strengthen the monitoring
network in those regions which at the moment
have sparse coverage and to include the
latest technologies such as high-resolution
remote sensing to complement the traditional
field observations," said Peter Gilruth,
Director of the Division of Early Warning
and Assessment (DEWA) of the UN Environment
Programme (UNEP) and Wilfried Haeberli,
Director of the World Glacier Monitoring
Service (WGMS) at the launch of the report.
Glaciers are a critical
component of the earth' system and the current
accelerated melting and retreat of glaciers
have severe impacts on the environment and
human well-being, including vegetation patterns,
economic livelihoods, natural hazards, and
the water and energy supply.
By looking at glaciers
– or what is left of them – future generations
will be able to discern clearly which climate
scenario is being played out at the present
time. The consequences of ice disappearance
for landscape characteristics in high mountain
areas will be felt at local as well as regional
scales, while the changes in the water cycle
will also affect continental-scale water
supply and global-scale sea levels.
The internationally
coordinated collection of information about
glaciers began in 1894 and the efforts towards
the compilation of a world glacier inventory
have resulted in unprecedented data sets.
For the second half of the 20th century,
preliminary estimates of the global distribution
of glaciers and ice caps covering some 685
000 km2 are available, including detailed
information on about 100 000 glaciers, and
digital outlines for about 62 000 glaciers.
The database on glacier
fluctuations includes 36,240 length change
observations from 1803 glaciers as far back
as the late 19th century, as well as about
3,400 annual mass balance measurements from
226 glaciers covering the past six decades.
The overall shrinking
of glaciers and ice caps since their maximum
extents during the Little Ice Age is well
correlated with the increase in global mean
air temperature of about 0.75 °C since
the mid 19th century, which is most likely
human-induced for the most part, at least
since the second half of the 20th century
(IPCC 2007). On a scale of decades, glaciers
in various regions have shown intermittent
re-advances, possibly in response to precipitation
changes (IPCC 2007).
The rapid environmental
changes highlighted in the new report released
today require that the international glacier
monitoring efforts make use of the swiftly
developing new technologies, such as remote
sensing and geo-informatics, and relate
them to the more traditional field observations,
in order to better face the monitoring challenges
of the 21st century.
Notes to Editors
The full 2008 report
'Global Glacier Changes: Facts and Figures'
including pictures and other resources can
be found at http://www.grid.unep.org/glaciers
The publication was
prepared in a joint project of the United
Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and
the World Glacier Monitoring Service (WGMS).
It was reviewed by scientists from around
the world with expertise in the research
and monitoring of glaciers and ice caps.
World Glacier Monitoring
Service (WGMS): http://www.wgms.ch
WGMS compiles, analyses,
and publishes standardised information on
the distribution and ongoing changes in
the world's glaciers and ice caps. WGMS
works under the auspices of ICSU (FAGS),
IUGG (IACS), UNEP, UNESCO, and WMO and maintains
a collaborative network of local investigators
and national correspondents in all countries
involved in glacier monitoring.
GRID-Europe is one of
UNEP's major centres for data and information
management, with a unique, "value-adding"
mandate in the handling of global and regional
environmental data, which in turn support
the environment assessment and early warning
activities of UNEP and its partners.
The potential impacts
of climate change on glaciers were outlined
in the Fourth Assessment Report (AR4) of
the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
(UNEP and the World Meteorological Organisation)
published in 2007.
UNEP's Climate Change
Science Compendium, published in September
2009, also featured a section on Earth's
Ice looking at the shrinking of glaciers
and ice sheets around the globe: http://www.unep.org/compendium2009/
For More Information
Please Contact:
Wilfried Haeberli, Director, WGMS
Nick Nuttall, UNEP Spokesperson and Head
of Media
