TL/DR –

Whoever said “ice, ice, baby” clearly wasn’t talking about the Juneau Ice Field. It’s not just losing weight—it’s on the fast-track to oblivion, melting twice as fast since 2010! With the potential to spit out more sea-level-rise than anywhere else on the globe (and a quarter of its volume already gone since the 18th century), it’s time we confront this cold, hard truth: our carbon footprints are turning glaciers into puddles.

Glaciers Going, Going, Almost Gone

Scientists alarmingly stated that one of North America’s largest area of interconnected glaciers, the Juneau Ice Field, is melting at double the speed compared to pre-2010, hinting that ice disappearance could be a sooner reality than anticipated.

The Ice Field, spreading through Alaska and British Columbia’s Coast Mountains, shed a whopping 1.4 cubic miles of ice annually between 2010 and 2020. That’s a steep climb from the previous decades and a massive leap from mid-20th century or earlier. The ice field has, overall, lost a quarter of its volume since the late 18th century.

Planet-Warming CO2 Speeds Up Glacier Melting

Bethan Davies, a Newcastle University glaciologist who led the research, warned that with increased carbon dioxide in the environment, glaciers could reach a point of no return, where melting accelerates dramatically. She emphasizes that reducing carbon emissions is crucial for the preservation of these ice masses.

Alaska’s Ice Impact on Global Sea-Level Rise

Alaska’s ice fate is significantly impactful on a global scale. In no other region are melting glaciers predicted to contribute more to global sea-level rise this century. The Ice Field covers 1,500 square miles and has become warmer and rainier in the past 50 years, leading to longer melt seasons and less snow to restore the glaciers.

Record Ice Loss and New Lakes Formation

To track the Ice Field’s evolution, the team combined decades of glacier measurements with satellite images, aerial photos, maps, surveys, and environmental studies. The results revealed that each glacier receded between 1770 and 2019, with over 100 glaciers disappearing entirely and nearly 50 new lakes forming due to melting.

Increasing Albedo Effect

Scientists also found that the Ice Field’s volume loss slowed down mid-20th century but surged again post 1979 and then accelerated further after 2005. This acceleration is connected to albedo effect, where snowfall reduction exposes more rocks and boulders, absorbing more solar radiation and speeding up melting. Additionally, soot and dust deposition from tourism and wildfires further accelerates this process.

Fast-Forward Melting

Another factor is that as the Ice Field thins, more of its area lies at a lower elevation, exposing more of its surface to warmer air, and consequently, melting faster. Despite these findings and projections of how every glacier on Earth will evolve, models of glacier change still don’t capture these complexities fully, says Dr. Davies. According to these projections, even if nations meet the Paris Agreement’s goal of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial conditions, about half of the world’s glaciers could be gone by 2100.

Original Story at www.nytimes.com