Polar Bears International’s Post

As a way to highlight the threat to, & importance of maintaining, glaciers worldwide, the UN has designated 2025 as the International Year of Glaciers’ Preservation. Learn how Greenland's melting glaciers are affecting local polar bear subpopulations. https://lnkd.in/duF2KXr4

Imagine living in a place where glaciers—your primary water source—are melting so fast, they might vanish entirely. That’s the harsh reality for communities in Peru’s Andes Mountains, home to 70% of the world’s tropical glaciers. These glaciers have shrunk by around 40% since the 1970s, drastically impacting water access. The Pastoruri Glacier, pictured here, is located in the southern part of the Cordillera Blanca, a section of the Andes mountain range in northern Peru's Ancash region. It is one of the few glaciers left in the tropical areas of South America. Glacial melt in the Andes not only threatens a crucial water source but also carries acid-heavy metal deposits into rivers, releasing contaminants such as lead, arsenic, cadmium, and manganese, which degrade water and soil quality. As these glaciers disappear, communities are forced to adapt. National Geographic Explorer Ciril Jazbec's work, supported by National Geographic Society's Global Storytellers Fund in partnership with The Climate Pledge, documents how local communities are combining ancient water management techniques with modern science to find solutions.

Maybe you have heard the news: Andean glaciers have retreated to their lowest levels in almost 12,000 years. What do we lose when we lose glaciers? How do we talk about loss in the face of overwhelming climate anxiety? And how do we ensure our actions are guided by hope, and not hubris? We think about these questions all the time and are convinced that protecting ancient natural systems requires ancient approaches and knowledge. The communities in the Andes have co-evolved with glaciers, meaning we have a roadmap to climate resilience that is many centuries in the making. Together with our Acción Andina partners in the Andean region, we are learning from local communities on how to regenerate ecosystems to ensure water for all--to ensure everyone is able to live with dignity in a future of profound change. #GenerationRestoration #WaterPositive https://lnkd.in/g2Bxc2tx

I already answered this question. The melting of permanent glaciers at these altitudes (6900 meters from the sea) should only be answered based on advanced atmospheric physics. Therefore, there is no need to be surprised and it has nothing to do with fossil fuels and greenhouse gases. We are facing a new scientific phenomenon and that is the behavioral physics of aerosols of the third type and atmospheric lenses. Whenever renewable water or permanent ice is closer to these atmospheric lenses, the water will evaporate faster and the ice will disappear faster. Look at the disappearance of Lake Sicily and the Colorado River and Mexico. https://lnkd.in/dm65T4CR https://lnkd.in/erMd5bwz #NewScientificTheoryOfTheEarthNaturalSuffocationCycle #BehavioralPhysicsofNaturalColloidalParticles #wildfires #netzero #climatechange #CO2 #wildfire #airquality #FBF2024 #geology #geologist #geologyrocks #geophysicist #energytransition #climatescience #earthscience #earthsciences #sciencecommunication #scienceeducation #meteorology #atmosphere #atmospheric #earthscience #earthobservation #physics #geophysics #dataanalytics #scienceexploration #politics #physics #aerosol #atmospher #airpollution  #InternationalDayofCombatingSandandDustStorms #Copernicus #climatechangeadaptation #WHO #IPCC #UNClimateChange #NOAA #Cop10 #AirPollution #Air #AirReport #NASA #COP28 #IAEA #EPA #EPA #WMO #ipccreport #globalwarming #climatecrisis #COP26 #temperature #unavoidableopportunity #climateresilience #ActOnClimate #wildfires #oceans #globalwarming #technology #netzero #scenarios #ClimateAction #sciencenews #scienceeducation #sciencecommunication #abpoli #cdnpoli #anthropocene #InternationalDayofCombatingSandandDustStorms #CopernicusAtmosphere #SaharanDust

Heather Purdie from #ucnz School of Earth and Environment and Tim Kerr (SEE adjunct) have undertaken mass balance monitoring on the Rolleston #Glacier, near Arthur's Pass in the Southern Alps of #Aotearoa #NewZealand for the last 14 years. They dig snow pits to measure snow density, take numerous snow depth measurements, and use a stream drill to install PVC stakes that record the summer melting. This year, despite a reasonably ‘snowy’ spring, the preliminary winter balance was 2.5 metres of water equivalent (i.e. an average of about 4.5 m of snow over the whole glacier surface). This value is slightly below the average winter balance they have recorded over the past 14 years. Each year the data are submitted to the World Glacier Monitoring Database https://lnkd.in/g74iU3Ys meaning that internationally, Rolleston Glacier is a ‘benchmark glacier’. It is one of only two in New Zealand and of only a the few in the Southern Hemisphere. It is important work monitoring long-term climate change.

The rapid retreat of Andean glaciers, highlighted by recent studies, demonstrates the accelerated pace of climate change, exceeding scientific expectations. This phenomenon signals a significant shift in climatic patterns and poses a critical challenge to the socio-ecological systems reliant on stable conditions. As the newly exposed bedrock of these glaciers reveals, we are encountering changes that could destabilise the foundations of global civilisations. The implications extend far beyond environmental concerns, prompting a reassessment of our adaptive strategies, water resource management, and climate resilience. There is a pressing need for a cohesive response that integrates science, policy, and community action. #ClimateChange #GlacierRetreat #Andes #Sustainability #ClimateResilience #EnvironmentalImpact #WaterResources #GlobalWarming #Ecology #ScientificResearch

The Juneau Icefield, which extends for some 1,500 square miles from northwest British Columbia, Canada, into southeast Alaska, is composed of more than 1,000 glaciers, and it has been for millennia. But now, perhaps more than ever, the landscape’s longevity is in question. Between 2010 and 2020, the icefield lost 1.4 cubic miles of ice each year, according to a new study published Tuesday in the journal Nature Communications, which highlights the icefield’s unprecedented and accelerating melting. #juneauicefield #canada #alaska #climatechange #risingsealevels #globalwarming #netzero #climateaction https://lnkd.in/gXukvGge

The Solution: Keep What Little Ice Earth Has In-Place, Keep It From Melting / Ross Andersen for The Atlantic Glaciologists have spent decades telling people that ice sheets are hemorrhaging icebergs and meltwater into the ocean at rates without precedent since the advent of scientific records on the subject—and that this is a serious problem, especially for the 40 percent of us who live in low-lying regions near a coastline. The glaciologists have often felt ignored. In recent years, they have begun to bicker, largely behind closed doors, about whether to push a more interventionist approach. Some now think that we should try to control the flow of the planet’s most vulnerable glaciers. They say that with the right technology, we might be able to freeze them in place, stopping their slide into the seas. Mountain glaciers are already shrinking fast. The ice slabs wedged into the valleys between the Alps, Andes, and Himalayas may burn off entirely before the century’s end. Greenland’s ice sheet is also in imminent danger. It still covers almost all of the island, apart from the coasts, but its outlet glaciers have been sloughing off icebergs at an increasing rate. Thwaites, a glacial formation on West Antartica the size of the Isle of Britain could detach from the continent IN OUR LIFETIMES, That would likely lead to the loss of much of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. Sea levels could rise by up to 10 feet. Even five feet of sea-level rise would erase hundreds of islands from the Earth’s surface, along with the unique cultures and ecologies that have taken root on them. Hundreds of millions of people who live along coasts could be forced to find new homes, with unpredictable geopolitical ripple effects. The world’s most prominent glaciologists gathered for two days at Stanford University to discuss ice preservation. If a heat siphon could reach the bottom of Thwaites, it might be able to freeze a region of the glacier’s base, creating a sticky spot. But the siphons used in the permafrost are only a few meters long; it may be difficult to lengthen them by orders of magnitude. There is good reason to try: Siphons don’t need diesel fuel. They’re powered by temperature differences alone. If a consortium of governments became convinced that Thwaites could be saved, and that trillions of dollars of flooding damage could be avoided, they might treat the project more like a military mobilization or mass vaccine deployment. By those standards, the many billions of dollars you might need—especially if the glacier had to be drilled and pumped continually, across many years—really isn’t that much money. IF we want to keep our ice sheets and shores where they are...Much planning and MAJOR INVESTMENT is required. https://lnkd.in/e6EwKUZS

A glacier is a large accumulation of mainly ice and snow, that originates on land and flows slowly through the influence of its own weight. Glaciers are found on every continent. They exist in many mountain regions and around the edges of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets. There are more than 275 000 glaciers in the world, covering an area of around 700 000 km². Glaciers are considered as important water towers, storing about 170 000 km3 of ice, which amounts to approximately 70% of the global freshwater. Glaciers are a source of life, providing freshwater to people, animals and plants alike. #glaciers2025 Photo credit: Saiko3p/Shutterstock

Today marks the launch of the International Year of #GlaciersPreservation #Glaciers2025🧊 Glaciers are more than ice; they are lifelines for countless communities and ecosystems, providing freshwater for billions of people worldwide. Yet, due to #ClimateChange, these critical resources are disappearing at an alarming rate. #Glaciers2025 is intended to spotlight the importance of #glaciers and rally global efforts to protect them. This year also introduces the annual World Day for Glaciers on 21 March. 📸Swiss Post’s 2009 #stamp on glacier preservation. Highlighting the retreat of the Morteratsch Glacier over 150 years, the stamp uses optically variable luminescence to depict the glacier’s stark changes depending on the angle of light. More: https://bit.ly/4amZJA1 #philately