The rise in global average temperatures is causing the uncontrolled melting of glaciers around the planet. Recently it was learned that a large block of ice broke off the Gray glacier, in Torres del Paine. The detached block of ice has dimensions of 350 × 380 meters.
How is the Gray glacier in the face of the increase in temperature?
Detachment of a block
The block detached from the Gray Glacier adds to the amount of ice it has lost during the last twelve years. The glacier has lost a total of 900 cubic meters of ice in just twelve years.
Doctor Raúl Cordero He is an expert researcher in climate change and an academic at the University of Santiago. He claims that the detachment of this block of ice will cause real difficulties for navigation. He also confirms that the Grey Glacier is no larger than those lost in Patagonia, as detailed in the article about the fracture of the Grey glacier.
The continued loss of glaciers has become an irreversible trend caused by global warming. As average temperatures rise, the amount of ice that melts is greater, as hot seasons last longer.
"The danger in the medium and long term for coastal countries like Chile is that ice losses continue, what makes the sea level rise. By the end of the century, the expected increases, in the best of cases, would be one meter above sea level and that is a lot ”, says the researcher.
It should be noted that the areas most affected by the consequences of the continued melting of glaciers are coastal cities. The amount of water trapped in a glacier is enormous, and when it begins to melt rapidly, as it is currently doing, it leads to terrible flooding.
As glaciers melt, not only will coastal cities be affected by flooding, but they will also be affected by rising sea levels. This increase is not only dangerous because there is more water, but, for the most part, can affect the coasts more severely when there is a storm and wind due to a greater amount of water in the seas and oceans.
“The problem around the world is that glaciers are out of balance. That is to say, a negative balance: they lose more ice due to melting or in the form of an iceberg than they gain due to accumulation of snow, ”explains Cordero.
It is really dangerous that the world's glaciers are melting, since, beyond the rise in sea level and floods, glaciers are a key point in the functionality of the ecosystems associated with it.
Global warming
As global warming progresses, the need arises more to mitigate its effects than to try to stop it. The effects that trigger a global climate change are already imminent and it is impossible to stop them. What must be done is to mitigate the effects of climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions through the energy transition based on renewable energies.
The Gray glacier is one of the largest in Patagonia, but it is not the one that has been lost the most. In this area there are decreases of up to 13 kilometers in just three decades. You can learn more about glaciers in the article about the glaciers of Argentina.
"There is no indicator of climate change that is not accelerating for the worse. The sea level is rising faster and faster; glaciers are melting faster and faster; Greenland and Antarctica are losing more and more ice; we have significant changes in the sequence of extreme events such as extreme storms, extreme hurricanes, extreme drought, heat waves; And all of this, naturally, is a manifestation of the acceleration of climate change ”, concludes Cordero.
The melting of the glaciers is accelerating climate change, since as there is less snow, less amount of solar radiation is reflected and, therefore, more heat is absorbed, which increases temperatures even more.
