The rate of change is important, and right now that rate of change is drastically higher than it ever has been, and that is because of us and our activities. — As one of the Gershwins wrote, it ain’t necessarily so. — As one of the Gershwins wrote, it ain’t necessarily so back before 2007. But it s true in 2022.
bjurasz wrote that "Who cares what the planet climate was like back then. So, two things you are missing here:
The rate of change is important, and right now that rate of change is drastically higher than it ever has been, and that is because of us and our activities…"
7°C to 12°C in 50 years is far faster than current warming, in 2007 and 2022.
For comparison, the modern rate of change is approximately 0.2°C per decade – about an order of magnitude slower.
So the difference is like the difference between air and water.
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The fact remains that glaciers are shrinking and losing mass due to both melting and sublimation caused by global warming (climate change).
Melting requires heat (energy) to go from solid to liquid (ice to water)
Sublimation requires heat (energy) to go from solid to gas (ice to water vapor)
These are both endothermic processes
Global warming (climate change) provides the heat (energy) for melting and sublimation of the glaciers (ice). Global warming (climate change) is caused mainly by greenhouse gas emissions from consumption of fossil fuels by humans.
It is very difficult.
There are many ways to deal with our climate damage. Each person has their own way
and that is as it should be.
That is not working. It is like saying there are many ways for people to deal with murderers and that is the way it should be. The state needs to control the environmental inputs and outputs to sequester more CO2 and methane gas. We can not longer afford an ideology that kids itself.
Ice velocity and thickness of the world’s glaciers
Millan et al. www.nature.com/articles/s41561-021-00885-Z
Abstract:
The effect of climate change on water resources and sea-level rise is largely determined by the size of the ice reservoirs around the world and the ice thickness distribution, which remains uncertain. Here, we present a comprehensive high-resolution mapping of ice motion for 98% of the world’s total glacier area during the period 2017–2018. We use this mapping of glacier flow to generate an estimate of global ice volume that reconciles ice thickness distribution with glacier dynamics and surface topography.
The results suggest that the world’s glaciers have a potential contribution to sea-level rise of 257?±?85?mm, which is 20% less than previously estimated. At low latitudes, our findings highlight notable changes in freshwater resources, with 37% more ice in the Himalayas and 27% less ice in the tropical Andes of South America, affecting water availability for local populations. This mapping of glacier flow and thickness redefines our understanding of global ice-volume distribution and has implications for the prediction of glacier evolution around the world, since accurate representations of glacier geometry and dynamics are of prime importance to glacier modelling.
The highest glacier on the world’s tallest mountain is losing decades worth of ice every year because of human-induced climate change, a new study shows.
The findings serve as a warning that rapid glacier melt at some of the Earth’s highest points could bring worsening climate impacts, including more frequent avalanches and a drying-up of water sources that around 1.6 billion people in mountain ranges depend on for drinking, irrigation and hydropower.
Ice that took around 2,000 years to form on the South Col Glacier has melted in around 25 years, which means it has thinned out around 80 times faster than it formed.