Home > Learning Center > Melting glaciers

Melting glaciers

Melting glaciers have been a changing aspect of the global climate for millions and millions of years. For over 11,000 years, the Earth has been experiencing a warm, “interglacial” period. Since 1850, global warming has caused this melting to increase rapidly and severely. Though between 1950 and 1980 there was some slowing and even some reversal of glacier retreat, after 1980 it began to accelerate at an alarming pace. In fact, the record loss between 1980 and 2000 has since been exceeded during three out of the past six years.

The sea level and the availability of fresh water are examples of factors affected by melting glaciers. Many humans depend on glaciers for drinking water, agricultural needs, industry, and hydroelectric power generation. When such water is released too quickly, it can result in the short-term danger of floods, followed in the long-term by a period of drought.

The issue of glacier retreat is particularly critical in Asia where 2.4 billion people of the continent occupy land which relies on nine main glacier-sustained rivers. For a specific example of potential effects, consider that 70-80% of the flow of the Indus River comes from Himalayan glaciers. The Indus irrigates 80% of the agricultural land of Pakistan and numbers among the World Wide Fund for Nature’s top ten at-risk rivers due to melting glaciers. Threats to this river are threats to that much land and the people that rely on it.