The Glacial Pace of Climate Action Imperils Earth's Ice

Asia is set to suffer disproportionate losses of snow and ice. This must be the year that we turn around our emissions record

- John Pomeroy

The Yala Glacier, at over 5,000 meters above sea level, is a glacier on the brink. With rapid warming and declining winter snowfall, the river of ice is set to soon stop accumulating enough ice mass to move—and lose its glacier status. It joins a growing list of frozen casualties to the Great Thaw that we are now living through, and on May 12, communities, scientists, and local government met at the foot of the glacier to mark its rapid disappearance.

The World Meteorological Organization's 2024 State of the Global Climate report, issued earlier this year, confirms last year was the hottest year on Earth in 175 years of observations. A major UN report published in March zeroed in on the implications of the relentless uptick in global temperatures and emissions, for one of the most climate-sensitive components of the Earth system: our frozen mountain water resources.

Among its findings is the stark fact that many mountain glaciers will not survive the 21st century.

Changes to our mountains' glaciers, snow, and permafrost may not dominate our newsfeeds to the same extent as heatwaves, wildfires, or conflicts, do. However, these are the source of 60–70% of Earth's freshwater, and so the UN's findings should alarm the world.

Many are aware of the very grave threats ice melt from polar ice sheets pose to flooding of low-elevation coastal populations and low-lying States; however, the threats we face from mountain glaciers and snow melting are set to hit us far sooner and will be no less devastating. In many cases, these will have more direct and near-term consequences for economic systems, and for massive human populations.