The international study found that the world could lose as much as 41% of its total glacier mass this century, amounting to 80% of the world’s total glaciers by number, if ambitious climate mitigation efforts are not met.
A University of New England researcher is part of a team that has, for the first time, shown how rapidly glaciers can lose mass based on various future development and carbon emission scenarios and found that — in the worst-case scenario — two out of three of the world’s glaciers could melt into the sea within the next century.
Will Kochtitzky, Ph.D., visiting assistant teaching professor of geographic information systems (GIS) within the School of Marine and Environmental Programs, is an author on the groundbreaking study, “Global glacier change in the 21st century: Every increase in temperature matters,” published in Science on Jan. 5.
The international effort, led by David Rounce, Ph.D., assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering at Carnegie Mellon University, shows that the world could lose as much as 41% of its total glacier mass this century—or as little as 26% — depending on today’s climate change mitigation efforts.