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The largest glacier in Washington’s Mount Rainier and Glacier Peak mountain ranges has all but disappeared as glaciologists warn half of the planets’ ice caps are next.
Hinman Glacier, which is located in the Cascade Mountains, has shrunk to 0.01 square miles, just 4 percent of what it was in 1958, Nichols College glaciologist Mauri Pelto reported.
“It’s completely gone,” Pelto said. CNN of the melting glacier. “This was the largest glacier in this part of the range, it was exceptional.”
He noted that while it could reform a bit, “as we continue to warm in the future, that’s going to be even less hospitable” to the Hinman and glaciers around the world.
Hinman Glacier has shrunk to 0.01 square miles, just 4 percent of what it was in 1958, when scientists began tracking its decline. In the image: the area of the glacier as it is (left) and the area of the glacier as it was in 1985 (right)
Nichols College glaciologist Mauri Pelto (pictured) said: “It’s completely gone,” when he led an expedition to the glacier last year.
The melting of the glacier has also caused the formation of the unofficial Hinman Lake (above).
In his report published late last year, Pelto said scientists have been tracking the disappearance of the Hinman Glacier for decades, as evidenced by the unofficial formation of Hinman Lake where the glacier is melting.
The disappearance of the Hinman Glacier and accumulation in the lake spell trouble for the local environment, as the glacier normally feeds nearby rivers.
Along with Hinman losing nearly 95 percent of its size, Pelto said the nearby Columbia Glacier shrank by 25 percent, Foss Glacier by 70 percent and Lynch Glacier by 40 percent.
Overall, it has led to a sharp decline in freshwater from the Skykomish River basin, a critical part of the Pacific Northwest salmon population, CNN reports.
Pelto said the Skykomish River basin has lost 55 percent of its surface area since the 1950s.
The glacier, photographed in 1988, probably won’t return to its original size in the winter, as experts doubt it can be called a glacier in its current state.
The receding glaciers in the Pacific Northwest are likely to affect local rivers and wildlife. Pictured is the Skykomish River Basin, which has lost 55 percent of its surface area.
David Shean, a professor of civil and environmental engineering and an expert on glaciers at the University of Washington, noted that in its current state, Hinman Glacier may no longer be classified as a real glacier.
He told CNN that even if the glacier gains more mass over the winter, it will likely continue to lose more than it gains and “completely disappear in the next decade or so.”
The grim outlook was also forecast for up to half of Earth’s glaciers, which experts say could be lost by the end of the century due to climate change, even if humanity makes traumatic changes to try to slow the outcome.
A UNESCO report Last year he said that the Dolomites in Italy, Yosemite and Yellowstone parks in the United States and Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania will disappear as early as 2050.
UNESCO monitors some 18,600 glaciers in 50 of its World Heritage sites and said a third of them will disappear by 2050.
UNESCO monitors some 18,600 glaciers in 50 of its World Heritage sites and said a third of them will disappear by 2050.
While the rest can be saved by keeping global temperature rise below 2.7°F relative to pre-industrial levels, under a normal emissions scenario around 50 percent of these World Heritage glaciers could disappear. almost completely by 2100.
The 50 World Heritage sites in the report are home to about 10 percent of Earth’s glaciers.
But the report warns that these glaciers have been retreating at an accelerating rate since 2000 due to carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, which are raising temperatures.
Together, the glaciers are losing 58 billion tons of ice each year, the equivalent of the combined annual water use of France and Spain.
Furthermore, they are responsible for nearly 5 percent of the global observed sea level rise.
Worryingly, the report concludes that glaciers at a third of 50 sites will disappear by 2050, regardless of efforts to limit temperature increases.
In Africa, this includes all glaciers in World Heritage sites, including Kilimanjaro National Park and Mount Kenya.
In Asia, the glaciers in the Yunnan Three Parallel Rivers Protected Areas and those in the Western Tian-Shan are at risk.
And in Europe, it is very likely that the glaciers in the Pyrenees, Mont Perdu, and the Dolomites will disappear by 2050.
But there is hope.
UNESCO says it is still possible to save the glaciers at the remaining two-thirds of the sites, if the global temperature rise is kept below 2.7°F.
Audrey Azoulay, Director-General of UNESCO, said: ‘This report is a call to action.
“Only a rapid reduction in our CO2 emission levels can save glaciers and the unique biodiversity that depends on them.
‘COP27 will have a crucial role in helping to find solutions to this problem. UNESCO is determined to support states in achieving this goal.’