Glacier Funeral for Global Warming... Scientists Begin Documenting 'Disappearing Glaciers'

Thousands of Glaciers Disappearing Worldwide
Glacier 'Casualty List' Shows Threatened and Lost Glaciers
Initiating Compilation of Glacier Inventory List

The American daily newspaper The Washington Post (WP) reported on the 25th (local time) that thousands of glaciers around the world are disappearing due to global warming. Venezuela lost its last glacier this year, and at least 264 glaciers have vanished in New Zealand as well.

Glacier photo. Not related to the above article.

In the western United States, more than 400 glaciers have disappeared since the mid-20th century.

Swiss researchers have counted over 1,000 small glaciers that have vanished. The glaciers remaining in East Africa cover less than 2 km². WP reported that as the number of glaciers disappearing due to climate change increases, scientists have begun to document the vanishing glaciers just like endangered animals.

In August 2019, a funeral was held at the Ok volcano in Iceland. It was a "glacier funeral" to commemorate the Okjokull glacier, which was 700 years old and melted away due to climate change, disappearing five years earlier. A few weeks later, a glacier funeral for the Pizol glacier was held in the Glarus Alps in northeastern Switzerland. The Ok glacier funeral did not receive much attention at the time, but it contributed to mapping the disappearing glaciers.

Simen Hauwa and Dominic Boyer, anthropologists at Rice University in Texas who planned the Ok glacier funeral, created a glacier "casualty list" showing 15 glaciers that are endangered or have disappeared in South America, Asia, India, and other regions. Andrew Fountain, a glaciologist at Portland State University, also began compiling a "glacier inventory" that organizes the remaining glaciers starting from the western United States.

Chinese glaciologists report that more than 8,000 glaciers have disappeared within their country alone. WP noted that theoretically, disappeared glaciers could re-form and grow in size, but realistically, this is unlikely.

Swiss glaciologist Matthias Huss estimated that around 10,000 glaciers worldwide could disappear. Huss pointed out, "The continuous disappearance of the smallest glaciers is something that cannot be reversed even if we stop carbon dioxide emissions immediately today."

He emphasized, "While it may already be too late for the small glaciers, it might not yet be too late to revive the larger glaciers."