Published on December 30th, 2024 | by Natural Awakenings Publishing Corp.
0Dire State of Earth’s Ice and Snow
In advance of the 29th United Nations Climate Change Conference or Conference of the Parties (COP29) that took place in Azerbaijan last November, more than 60 leading scientists from the International Cryosphere Climate Initiative issued a report on the state of the planet’s snow and ice. The experts agreed that the frozen parts of Earth are in serious trouble.
Among the findings: Venezuela has lost its final glacier; the Greenland Ice Sheet is losing an average of 30 million tons of ice per hour; ice loss from the Thwaites Glacier in Antarctica may be unstoppable; two-thirds of the glaciers in the European Alps will disappear by 2050; and 10 million people in Iceland, Alaska and Asia are at risk of flooding from melting glaciers. The scientists behind the report urged governments and citizens worldwide to phase out fossil fuels and finance climate action.