Alpine Glacier to Disappear by 2100 Claims a New Study

The mighty Aletsch, which is regarded as the largest glacier in the Alps, could completely disappear by the end of the present century if nothing is done to check the growing climate change, a new study has revealed recently.

Aletsch is one among the 4,000 known glaciers of the world, but its speciality lies in its vastness, ancient reserves of ice which are dotted throughout the Alps, providing seasonal water to millions of people and forming some of Europe’s most attractive landscapes.

A team of researchers in Switzerland has used simulation technique and various other techniques to find out how the Aletsch Glacier is changing as the planet continues to warm.

The glacier, that covers 86 square kilometers in the Swiss Alps and which is estimated to hold around 11 billion tonnes of ice, has already started to recede by about one kilometer since the turn of the century. The ETH technical university in Zurich said in a statement.

Scientists, therefore, are predicting that if the current trend continues and even if the world is able to meet the 2015 Paris Agreement target of capping global warming at ‘well below’ 2 degrees Celsius, it is going to lose Alpine Glacier.

The ETH research team also said even if the precautionary measures are taken now to check the fast-changing climate, the glacier would lose at least 50 percent of its volume and length by 2100. 

Earlier this year in a study, the ETH researchers found that more than 90 percent of the glaciers of the world would disappear by 2100 if greenhouse gas emissions remain unchecked. The recent study meanwhile focuses specifically on the impact on the biggest glacier of them all.

Guillaume Jouvet and Matthias Huss at ETH’s Laboratory have applied 3D glacier model simulations for the ice retreat using different established climate scenarios for Switzerland. They also showed, how the glacier is seen from the Eggishorn and Jungfraujoch peaks, which tower 2,927 and 3,466 metres above sea level, as it rapidly recedes over the coming eight decades.

Jouvet said in a statement, “even if warming is limited to below 2C, and the climate is stabilized by 2040, we have to assume that the Aletsch Glacier will keep retreating until the end of the century”. This, he also said, “means both ice volume and length will be reduced by more than half of what they are today”.

Jouvet also has specified in the statement that, If the climate of Switzerland warms by 4-8C by 2100, “an unfavorable but unfortunately fully realistic scenario only a couple of measly patches of ice will remain. And Konkordiaplatz, which is directly below Jungfraujoch and still covered in about 800 metres of ice, will be completely ice-free”.

ETH thus alerts, that if the global community is unable to pull together and effectively limit the planet from warming gases emitted from burning fossil fuels, construction, aviation and mega-farming, the situation for the glacier is going to be much more critical in the days to come.