Glaciers in Europe have retreated by kilometres
As the world marks World Glacier Day, researchers are raising awareness of why these icy giants are important, and why their disappearance could have devastating consequences for the planet.
Today, 21 March, the United Nations (UN) marks the Glacier Day, while 2025 has been designated by the UN as the Year of Glacier Conservation.
“If I think of my children, I am living in a world with maybe no glaciers. That’s actually quite alarming,” Michael Zemp, director of the World Glacier Monitoring Service (WGMS) at the University of Zurich, told the UN news. “I really recommend going with your children there and having a look at it because you can see the dramatic changes that are going on, and you will also realise that we are putting a big burden on our next generation.”
Some of Norway's glaciers have retreated by as much as 2.5 kilometres since the beginning of the last century. Meanwhile glaciers are now of vital importance to people:
"The retreat of glaciers is worrying because melting glaciers provide water for people and for crops and even electricity," Freya Sykes, an oceanographer at UiT The Arctic University of Norway, told the Barents Observer. "But if our glaciers were to disappear completely, it could mean less drinking water, less water for farming and less electricity."
The latest report from the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) emphasises that the biggest driver of these changes is the human-induced increase in CO2 levels in the atmosphere.
"We know from the geological past that there have been events of rapid climate change on the planet. But what in the geological past means 'rapid' – are changes over thousands of years while now it is happening over decades,” - Philipp Assmy, a senior researcher at the Norwegian Polar Institute, told the Barents Observer. He also points out that millions of years ago there were no humans on Earth, and now the globe's population is more than 8 billion.
