Scientists say this glacier in the Alps may survive if warming capped

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Swiss scientists say the biggest glacier in the Alps could yet be partially saved if global warming is capped below two degrees Celsius, although significant ice loss is now inevitable. - REUTERS

Transcript

00:00With glaciers around the globe disappearing faster than ever,

00:04Swiss scientists say this one in the Alps could be partially saved.

00:09Though only if global warming is capped below two degrees Celsius.

00:14And even then, scientists say significant ice loss at the Great Aletsch Glacier,

00:18which is over 12 miles long and weighs billions of tons, is now inevitable.

00:23Matthias Huss is the director of glacier monitoring Switzerland.

00:27So our new model results show that in Switzerland we are going to

00:32lose at least 70 percent of the total ice volume and this is the very best case

00:38if we emit no further CO2 after 2050.

00:43The Swiss Academy of Sciences modeled how different scenarios could affect the Alps.

00:47Without any climate mitigation, they say the three distinct tributaries that merge

00:52into a vast river of ice would vanish, leaving behind a deep grey valley.

00:57But if global warming holds below two degrees, glaciers above about 10,000 feet in elevation,

01:03like the Aletsch Glacier, could be preserved.

01:06Though it would be much shorter and thinner.

01:09The research did not say which was the more likely scenario.

01:13In the worst case, though, we may lose all glaciers in Switzerland by 2100.

01:20So it will be somewhere in between.

01:22But it's very likely that almost all glaciers are going to be lost.

01:26And I sincerely hope that only at Aletsch Glacier, at this high elevation,

01:31we may be able to preserve some of the ice.

01:34According to a UN report,

01:36the last three-year period has seen the largest glacial mass loss on record.

01:41If the glaciers are melting, and we're speaking more about the glaciers in the

01:45polar regions where the biggest ice masses are located, if these glaciers are melting,

01:50the global sea level is rising.

01:52And it may be rising by up to one meter until 2100, and even more at the longer term.

01:58More than half of the glaciers in the Alps are in Switzerland,

02:01where temperatures are rising by around twice the global average due to climate change.

02:06Their volume has fallen by almost 40 percent since 2000.

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