Kilimanjaro and Yellowstone glaciers will disappear by 2050; countries urged to act immediately!

The UN organisation cautioned that several UNESCO World Heritage sites, including Yellowstone and Kilimanjaro National Park, will probably lose their glaciers by the year 2050 and asked governments to take quick action to conserve the remaining ones. An analysis of 18,600 glaciers at 50 World Heritage Sites, covering a total of 66,000 square kilometres (25,000 square miles), found that glaciers at a third of the sites were ‘condemned to perish,’ which is what prompted the warning.

According to UNESCO, the study ‘shows these glaciers have been retreating at an accelerated rate since 2000 due to CO2 emissions, which are increasing temperatures’.  The 58 billion tonnes of ice lost annually by the glaciers, or about 5% of the estimated rise in sea level, is comparable to the combined annual water needs of France and Spain. UNESCO stated that, ‘Glaciers in a third of the 50 World Heritage sites are sentenced to vanish by 2050, regardless of attempts to control temperature rises’.

‘However, assuming the increase in temperature does not reach 1.5°C relative to the pre-industrial period, the glaciers at the remaining two thirds of sites can still be saved’.  The goal of keeping global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius over pre-industrial levels has been set by nations, however given present emission trends, this goal is likely to be missed.

Prior to the opening of the COP27 climate meeting in Egypt on Monday, Audrey Azoulay, the president of UNESCO, stated, ‘This report is a call to action.  Glaciers and the unique biodiversity that depends on them cannot be saved without a swift reduction in CO2 emissions. To assist in resolving this problem, COP27 will play a significant role’.

By the year 2050, all of Africa’s World Heritage Sites—including Mount Kenya and Kilimanjaro National Park—would probably be glacier-free. It’s conceivable that some of the glaciers in Europe’s Pyrenees and Dolomites will also be gone in three decades. The glaciers in Yosemite and Yellowstone, two American national parks, were the same way. The melting of ice and snow is one of the top 10 issues caused by climate change, according to a research from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change published in February.