Chilling Forecast Alps’ Ice To Shrink 34 by 2050, Even if Global Warming Were To Completely Stop

Even if global warming were to stop entirely, the ice volume in the European Alps is projected to decrease by 34% by 2050. Should the pattern observed in the past two decades persist, the ice loss could approach nearly half of its current volume, according to a recent international study led by scientists at the University of Lausanne (UNIL, Switzerland).

By 2050, i.e. in 26 years time, we will have lost at least 34% of the volume of ice in the European Alps, even if global warming were to stop completely and immediately. This is the prediction of a new computer model developed by scientists from the Faculty of Geosciences and Environment at the University of Lausanne (UNIL), in collaboration with the University of Grenoble, ETHZ, and the University of Zurich.

In this scenario, developed using machine-learning algorithms and climate data, warming is stopped in 2022, but glaciers continue to suffer losses due to inertia in the climate-glacier system. This most optimistic of predictions is far from a realistic future scenario, however, as greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise worldwide.

https://scitechdaily.com/chilling-forecast-alps-ice-to-shrink-34-by-2050-even-if-global-warming-were-to-completely-stop/