Is there hope for glaciers? World-leading scientists unite

Glaciers: elegant, industrious, endangered. Storing 70% of the Earth’s freshwater, they underpin the food and water security of billions. They’re home to tens of thousands of microbial species, and hundreds of millions of people live in the shadows of their mountain lands.

But they’re melting, rapidly. It is estimated that they lost 273 billion tonnes in mass annually from 2000 to 2023. As well as impacting water resource availability, their melting has contributed to 0.75mm of sea level rise per year.

Even with the most ambitious goal of limiting global warming to 1.5°C, analysis suggests that up to half of the world’s 200,000 glaciers will disappear by the end of this century.

Is there hope for glaciers?

Answering the call from the UN declaration of 2025 as the International Year of Glaciers’ Preservation and UN Decade of Action for Cryospheric Research (2025–2034), an international team of glacier scientists has formed the Glacier Stewardship Program.

“The demise of glaciers and the impacts of the associated rise in sea level are not restricted to one country,” said team member Professor Jerome Neufeld, from the University of Cambridge. “A truly international effort is needed to figure out how we can safeguard these resources.”

This alliance of scientists will address three priorities to help address the challenges and consequences of glacier loss.

First, in cooperation with communities and stakeholders, the Program will systematically evaluate, test, and develop new technical approaches which may be appropriate to help slow ice loss at the local scale.

This is not to replace the need to limit global warming - every molecule of greenhouse gas makes more melting ice, so reducing carbon emissions is critical to help save glaciers. However, the scientists say reducing emissions alone is not enough.

“It is likely that even under the most ambitious emissions reduction scenario we will see the loss of many crucial glaciers,” said Dr Shaun Fitzgerald, Director of the Centre for Climate Repair at Cambridge.

“We need to explore potential options which could help protect them while we get greenhouse gases down to sustainable levels.”

Second, it will seek to mitigate the impacts of glacier loss on the hundreds of millions who live in the shadow of mountain lands. The Program will transform the state of the art in early-warning systems to protect communities from glacier-linked hazards in some of Earth’s most perilous mountain ranges.

Finally, the Program will establish a unique biobank – a microbial zoo - to save glacier biodiversity for future generations and harness its genetic potential for mitigating consequences of climate change.

The Glacier Stewardship Program is supported by scientists from Austria, Czech Republic, China, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, India, Italy, Norway, United Kingdom, Slovenia, and Switzerland.

Already in Cambridge, many glaciology experts are studying these changes. At a recent seminar on Engineering for the Climate, we heard from DAMTP researcher Dr Kasia Warburton.

“My research uses concepts from fluid dynamics to study the flow of glaciers in Antarctica and Greenland. Glaciers move like a viscous fluid, such as honey or golden syrup, spreading out under their own weight over the bedrock below. 

"In the fastest flowing regions of these ice sheets, there is a layer of wet mud between the base of the ice and the ice itself, so the ice doesn't just flow, it also slides. 

"My work focusses on understanding how the mud behaves - so how fast glaciers are sliding towards the ocean - and also on how water moves around underneath glaciers, which sets how slippery the mud becomes.

“A major application is to understand how glaciers respond to climate change. 

If we can get better models of glacier flow we can get better predictions of their contribution to sea-level rise, for example.”

In this International Year of Glaciers’ Preservation, the world must start looking to the hills. To inspire, USAPECS have shared a great list of films for their Polar Film Festival happening this week. Check out this one, exploring the far-reaching impacts of glacier change, including on biodiversity and water resources.