Himalayan Glaciers Face Significant Volume Loss Due to Global Warming

A new report warns that glaciers in the Hindu Kush Himalaya region, home to the planet's tallest peaks, are in jeopardy of losing as much as 80% of their volume by century's end.

Published Tuesday by the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), the report investigates the climate change impacts across a 1.6 million-square-mile area, spanning from Afghanistan to Myanmar.

"We're losing the glaciers, and we're losing them in 100 years' time," Philippus Wester, an environmental scientist and ICIMOD fellow, noted, according to Reuters.

The report revealed that the Hindu Kush and Himalaya range's glaciers melted 65% faster in the 2010s compared to preceding decades. Given a warming between 1.5 to 2 degrees Celsius, the highest mountain region globally could lose 30% to 50% of its volume by 2100, the report indicated. If the warming exceeds 3 degrees Celsius, glaciers in Nepal and Bhutan in the eastern Himalayas risk losing 75% of their ice, and with an increase of just one degree more, up to 80%.

Amina Maharjan, a migration specialist and one of the report's authors, told the Associated Press, "The people living in these mountains who have contributed next to nothing to global warming are at high risk due to climate change. Current adaptation efforts are wholly insufficient, and we are extremely concerned that without greater support, these communities will be unable to cope."

As stated by the World Meteorological Organization, the annual mean global near-surface temperature for each year between 2023 and 2027 is projected to be between 1.1 degrees Celsius and 1.8 degrees Celsius higher than the 1850-1900 average.

The area's ice and snow feed into 12 rivers, supplying freshwater to billions of people in 16 countries. The report cautioned that excess water from the melt could ultimately result in water shortages for inhabitants of these regions.

Izabella Koziell, the ICIMOD's deputy director-general, said, "The glaciers of the Hindu Kush Himalaya are a major component of the Earth system. With two billion people in Asia reliant on the water that glaciers and snow here hold, the consequences of losing this cryosphere are too vast to contemplate. We need leaders to act now to prevent catastrophe."

A previous report released in 2019 by CNN found that if average global warming was limited to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial temperatures, the region would lose at least one third of its glaciers— the latest reports have indicated worsening projections.

The report also highlighted that melting glaciers could result in severe flooding. Its warnings align with climate change disasters earlier this year, including the sinking of the Indian mountain town of Joshimath, which forced residents to relocate within days.