Glaciers around the world are melting at the most rapid rhythms ever recorded, as record losses have been observed in the last three years, according to a UNESCO report published today.

“Keeping glaciers is not just a matter of environmental, economic and social need. It’s a matter of survival »underlined by the Secretary General of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) Andrea Selest Saulo on the occasion of today’s first world glaciers.

The 9,000 Gigatons ice lost by their glaciers by the 1975 match about ‘In a piece of ice at size of Germany with a 25 -meter thickness’, Michael Zeb, director of the World Ice Monitoring Service based in Switzerland, was explained during a press conference that presented the UNESCO report.

OR dramatic loss of iceby the Arctic as to Alps and from the Latin America as the Tibetis expected to accelerated Due to the climate change caused by fossil fuels and which increases the Earth’s temperature. This is likely to exacerbate economic, environmental and social problems around the world as the level of seas is increasing and the volume of glaciers, a basic source of water, is increasing.

According to Zeb, five of the last six years have been observed greater losses in the volume of glaciers, and only in 2024 they lost 450 giant mass.

With the current rhythms many glaciers in West Canada and the US, Scandinavia, Central Europe, the Caucasus, New Zealand and Tropical will not survive after the 21st centurystressed WMO.

The acceleration of the rate at which glaciers melt is one of the key factors that have led to the rise in seas, putting thousands of people at risk for floods and destroying aquatic roads on which billions of people depend on hydroelectricity.

Stefan Olbrook, WMO’s Water Manager and cold, said that around the world are approximately left over 275,000 glaciers which are about 70% of Earth’s fresh water.

Risks

About 1.1 billion people live in mountain communities which are most affected From the immediate effects of the loss of glaciers due to the increased risk of natural disasters and the non -reliable sources of water.

The rise in Earth’s temperature is also expected to aggravate droughts in snow -dependent areas, while increasing both the severity and the frequency of natural disasters such as landslides, avalanche, sudden floods and lake overflows.

According to the UNESCO report, the glaciers In East Africa it has led to an increase in conflicts over the access to water.

In addition, from 2000 to 2023, due to the reduction of glaciers’ volume, the world’s level worldwide has increased by 18 mm, almost one millimeter per year. Each additional millimeters exposes about 30,000 people in floods, the global glacier monitoring service said.

For the UN the only response to the problem is the Treatment of global warmingby limiting the gases that cause the greenhouse effect.

“We can negotiate many things in the UN, but we cannot negotiate the laws of physics concerning ice melting”, Ulenbruk underlined.