‘Extreme’ glacier loss events linked to human-caused climate change for first time

Aug 11, 2020

Climbers trek on Argentina's Perito Moreno glacier near the city of El Calafate, in the Patagonian province of Santa Cruz, December 16, 2009. Scientists warn that glaciers in the Andes are melting because of the effects of climate change. According to studies, these accumulations of ice are thawing at a pace so fast that they could disappear in 25 years. REUTERS/Marcos Brindicci (ARGENTINA) FOR BEST QUALITY IMAGE ALSO SEE GF2E5CL1M6D01 - GM1E5CH0R8J01

Human-caused climate change could be making glacier melting up to 350 times more likely. Image: REUTERS/Marcos Brindicci

Daisy Dunne

Science Writer, Carbon Brief

Our Impact

The Big Picture

Explore and monitor how Future of the Environment is affecting economies, industries and global issues

A hand holding a looking glass by a lake

Crowdsource Innovation

Get involved with our crowdsourced digital platform to deliver impact at scale

Stay up to date:

Future of the Environment

Have you read?

“”

climate change glaciers habits environment temperature earth global globe world planet

New Zealand's glaciers. Image: Chinn et al. (2012).

climate change glaciers habits environment temperature earth global globe world planet new zealand snowline survey

A scientists conducting a snowline survey in the Southern Alps. Image: Dave Allen NIWA.

The increase in likelihood of mass loss occurring for 10 glaciers with human-caused climate change, when compared to a scenario of no climate change. Results are shown for 2011 (blue) and 2018 (red). Image: Vargo et al. (2020).

“”

Don't miss any update on this topic

Create a free account and access your personalized content collection with our latest publications and analyses.

License and Republishing

World Economic Forum articles may be republished in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Public License, and in accordance with our Terms of Use.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.