What will remain of today’s glaciers in a few decades? The question worries many scientists, worried about the impacts of global warming on these “colossi” as precious as they are fragile. At a time when France is experiencing abnormally high winter temperatures, a study to be published this Friday, January 6 in the journal “Science” provides new projections. And they are not reassuring at all.
“Who could have predicted the climate crisis? Well, many people, Mr. President…
According to the authors – an international team made up in particular of CNRS researchers – the loss of mass from the glaciers is indeed expected to be much greater than that hitherto predicted by previous projections, in particular those that fed into the latest report by the Groupe d ‘Intergovernmental Experts on Climate Change (IPCC).
If global warming is limited to +1.5°C, the most ambitious goal of the Paris climate agreement, glaciers could lose 26% of their mass by 2100 (by compared to 2015), and up to 41% in the case of a +4°C scenario. That is a loss that is 14% to 23% greater than what had been anticipated until now!
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