At the time of writing, the UK is uncomfortably hot (yes, I am being a typical Brit and moaning about the weather, but in our defence our buildings are not suitable for hot weather at all!). To inspire some cool thoughts, I’ve turned to one of our latest Climate Curious episodes: How to feed a starving glacier.
It turns out that I underestimated these incredible landscapes. Glaciers (and ice sheets) cover approximately 10% of the Earth’s total land area, but sadly glacier loss is escalating with some regions losing nearly 40% of their ice mass (UNEP). Headlines in the media are alarming – look at the BBC for example – reminding us repeatedly that glaciers are in trouble. But I wasn’t actually aware of why these icy landscapes matter so much.
To help, I’ve pulled together seven facts to get you up to speed with these beautiful and impressive ecosystems, explain why they matter so much and show us how we can help glaciers get healthier again.
#1 Glaciers are made up of snowflakes
Glaciologist, Dr. M Jackson, in her Climate Curious episode, How to feed a starving glacier, explains quite beautifully the basics about glaciers. As she says, the scientific definition of a glacier is “moving rivers of land ice that persist year after year, made from snow” that have to flow. But she also explains glaciers with this striking and poetic definition:
“Glaciers are made from snowflakes. You’ve seen a single snowflake. It’s the most fragile, the most vulnerable, the most alone thing on the planet…
But a glacier is full of one single snowflake that fell to the ground, reached out and held hands with the next snowflake, and the next snowflake and the next snowflake. The millions and billions and trillions of snowflakes that are literally holding branches so tightly, they have become this community of snowflakes.
The most powerful force on this planet [is] a community of the most vulnerable, most alone things standing together”.
#2 The majority of us live in a place shaped by a glacier (even if you’re nowhere near one)
Whether you’re near a mountain range or not, it turns out that the majority of us are living in places that have been and continue to be shaped by glaciers. Dr. M Jackson explains:
“The majority of our world’s population live in a landscape that has been impacted, created by glaciers, by ice, by our cryosphere… It could be the landscape they live in – so a mountainous landscape that is shaped by ice. It could be a place they live in that is fed by ice – think here [of] big rivers that are coming down and feeding crops. Or it could be a place [where] their weather is impacted by the glaciers that might be countries away.”
To explain further, glaciers play a key role in maintaining our freshwater. So even if you’re nowhere near a glacier, you are still shaped by the health of them. The UNEP says approximately 70% of the world’s freshwater is held in glaciers. Glacier meltwater, snowmelt and rainfall all feed into our downstream water systems, supporting our crops, drinking water, day-to-day lives, and so on. As glaciers melt and recede, these freshwater systems are put under immense pressure – and these pressures aren’t spread evenly across the world. For example, a UNEP report points out that low-income countries have much higher levels of agricultural output and therefore are far more affected by shrinking freshwater systems. But it’s not just about freshwater, as Dr. M Jackson explains, glaciers impact our weather and also our sea levels.
#3 Glaciers are affecting our weather (and making it more extreme)
It might seem confusing to think why a glacier melting in one part of the world can cause hurricanes or droughts in other parts of the world. Again Dr. M Jackson helps explain:
“We have a finite amount of water on our planet and that water is either gonna be in a liquid form (rivers, oceans), it’s gonna be in a solid form (glaciers) or it can be in a gas form (water vapour in our atmosphere).
We know that when we have more water held in solid form…our planet is drier. Less storms, less fuel in the system.
But when we have more water in a liquid or gas form – so our planet is warmer right now, our solid ice is melting – all the weather that we naturally experience gets bigger.
We have more fuel for hurricanes. We have bigger droughts. We have higher sea levels, so we’re gonna be living in a much more unstable planet.”
It’s also important to add that if you are near mountains and glaciers your local weather patterns are being affected by glaciers melting. Glaciers and mountains in general regulate local weather and as glaciers melt, they can also cause disasters like landslides and flash flooding. As Dr. M Jackson puts it quite simply: “we need more of our water in solid form so you and I can live in better weather.”
#4 Glaciers are different to frozen ice caps – but they are affecting our sea levels
Glaciers are only one part of the cryosphere (the parts of Earth made of ice) that are adding to extreme weather. As other forms of ice melt like sea ice, ice sheets and ice caps, sea levels increase and weather patterns change becoming more volatile. When asked, Dr. M Jackson confirmed that melting glaciers are contributing to the rise of sea levels:
“When water flows from a glacier, it melts into a river system, into some [of the] hydro system [and] will eventually end up in our ocean. And our ocean’s like – ‘yes, please. I’ll get bigger’ – depending on if it’s cold water or warm water – and then our seas rise.”
An UNEP report estimated that water stores in mountain glaciers alone would contribute to approximately 50cm of sea level rise. Alongside other melting parts of the cryosphere, we can see how more water in liquid and gas forms are entering our global climate and causing drastic changes to weather patterns and our atmosphere.
In a previous Climate Curious episode, Can we refreeze the Arctic?, CEO of Ocean Visions, Brad Ack shared their work on creating new technologies and solutions on keeping the sea ice in the arctic frozen or refreezing parts of it, whilst other climate saving measures come into place. He also shares great insights on the relationships between our sea, oceans and carbon emissions – explaining how they are all interconnected. Be sure to give it a listen for more on this important, icy climate intervention.
#5 As glaciers melt, some countries are rising higher out of the sea
You probably assume that the land masses are unlikely to rise upwards – that their level above sea is (on the whole) set in stone. However, for countries that have a lot of glaciers, there is a phenomenon called isostatic rebound, where as a glacier melts, a land mass actually rises upwards! Dr M Jackson explains:
“Think about places like Greenland, Iceland, the Arctic, Antarctica. Iceland’s a fun one to imagine. We have so much glacier ice that presses Iceland down. But when that glacier ice starts to melt, the pressure goes away… So the land will rise back up… [it’s] called isostatic rebound.
So places that had ice, Iceland, Greenland, our Poles, volcanoes like Mount Rainier in the Pacific Northwest, they’re gonna spring back up. Iceland is rising out of the water quicker than sea level is catching it. Greenland is rising out of our seas quicker than the seas are rising. So sea level rise is part of our cryospheric impacts, but it is not the same everywhere.”
It’s incredible to see how these glaciers can so drastically change these entire land masses. M’s insight that it’s not the same everywhere, is also a great reminder that like with all climate issues, the impacts of climate change are not spread evenly. Different and more support, resources and solutions are needed to suit different countries and communities.
#6 Glaciers hold our memories
“From the highest point in Canada, Logan Mountain, we brought this ice core because we want people to understand time. We want people to understand that… we have 40 generations of humanity [caught] in a single glacier. Every air, every breath humanity ever took over the last 40 generations. I can show you that because snowflakes captured that and held [it] in glacier ice.”
This fact about glacier ice – that it can capture moments in time – is both beautiful and incredibly helpful for scientists. As M puts it, being able to look back in time within these ice cores, can inspire people to care for our glaciers and see how they connect to our shared human history.
For scientists and researchers, some glaciers are over 10,000 years old, meaning these are “archives” of our planet. As the UNEP put it, ‘The aerosols, bacteria, biomass and other particles embedded in glaciers are clues of past atmospheres and biospheres, helping scientists understand how natural systems have evolved over time.’
Not forgetting that glaciers hold a place in our cultural histories and identities. For many Indigenous and local communities, glaciers (and mountains) are part of their collective identities and spiritual practices. In general, we cannot forget that landscapes are not separate from humans or that this is just a “science” story. We are part of nature and losing any landscape – including glaciers – means losing part of our collective identities and history.
#7 If we feed our glaciers, they will grow
Glaciers are often limited to a single story of loss, explains Dr. M Jackson, but it doesn’t have to be that way. She wants “people to realise that we are not in the last chapter of our world’s ice.” She believes: “our glaciers have the ability to grow back. Our glaciers have the ability to have a thriving system… and live in balance with us.” How we get back to that balance is tricky, but not impossible. M shares:
“Our glaciers across the planet – they are starving. So what do we need to do? We need to fix our cold temperatures so our glaciers can thrive… Even if today we got our CO2 emissions under control and our temperature started to drop, our glaciers are probably gonna take a couple decades to respond…
I’m in this for the long game. I’m in this for the next generation [and] the next generation. We can get ahead of our CO2s and our water vapours. We can get our temperatures down and when we do that our glaciers begin to grow again.”
M’s hope and enthusiasm for the future of glaciers is striking. She reminds us again of the image she painted at the start of her episode: a single snowflake in the glacier doesn’t know if it’s having an impact but collectively these snowflakes are one of the strongest powers of earth. It’s a beautiful image and one to hold onto as we navigate protecting and restoring our glaciers – and other landscapes at risk from climate change.
At Climate Curious, we’ll continue sharing insights on our cool landscapes and keeping you up to date with the latest climate solutions protecting the Earth’s ice! Until then – stay curious (and cool)!
Lead photo credit: NGSE, ICEB, Joe Tighe
