A Farewell to Ice

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An 1870 postcard view of the Rhone glacier in Gletsch, Switzerland, contrasted with the shrinking 21st-century version of it. (Dominic Buettner for The New York Times)

By ANDREW C. REVKIN

The latest report on changes in the world’s glaciers, which we cover in the newspaper today, is Mass Balance Bulletin Number 9. The take-home message for many parts of the world — from Asia to the European Alps to the Andes — appeared to be, “Farewell to ice.” Essentially, the mountain storehouses of frozen water that have shaped their history and culture, or that have provided a secure year-round source of water through modern times, are no longer secure.

Writing about the report brought back memories from nearly 15 years ago, two years before I came to The New York Times.

At the time, I went to Switzerland for Conde Nast Traveler to get a better understanding of the findings in the second such bulletin. Rates of shrinking and melting were already nudging beyond patterns driven by known nonhuman influences. Towns in the Alps were already pondering shifting their marketing pitch to summer hiking tours from ski weekends. The article I wrote then is worth a fresh look now for context. (It’s also the kind of writing I rarely get to do any more, within the time, space and style constraints of a daily newspaper.)

Back then, Wilfried Haeberli, who led the latest glacier review, told me that by 2023, any doubts that humans had tipped the climate balance would be gone.

“If I follow a reasonable scenario, not an extreme one, for global warming,” Dr. Haeberli said, “I can say that we will see it here first. In other places, it may be more difficult to see the impact — on, say, changing vegetation or soils. But here, with the glaciers, this will be clear to everybody. A clear signal. My children, for instance, will very clearly know in 30 years — when they are as old as I am now — what the greenhouse effect really was all about.”

more:

http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/03/18/a-farewell-to-ice/index.html?hp

[n2doc]

1. Link to UN article

http://unep.org/Documents.Multilingual/Default.asp?DocumentID=530&ArticleID=5760&l=en

Meltdown in the Mountains

Record Glacier Thinning Means No Time to Waste on Agreeing New International Climate Regime

Zurich/Nairobi, 16 March 2008 - The world's glaciers are continuing to melt away with the latest official figures showing record losses, the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) announced today.

Data from close to 30 reference glaciers in nine mountain ranges indicate that between the years 2004-2005 and 2005-2006 the average rate of melting and thinning more than doubled.

The findings come from the World Glacier Monitoring Service (WGMS), a centre based at the University of Zurich in Switzerland and that is supported by UNEP.

It has been tracking the fate of glaciers for over a century. Continuous data series of annual mass balance, expressed as thickness change, are available for 30 reference glaciers since 1980.

Prof. Dr. Wilfried Haeberli, Director of the Service said: "The latest figures are part of what appears to be an accelerating trend with no apparent end in sight".


more at link

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2. Figures from report (depressing)

[XemaSab]

3. 2023?

Thanks for setting a benchmark there. :D