Mount Kilimanjaro’s glaciers will have vanished within three decades, a new report has said.
Glaciers in one third of UN World Heritage sites are set to melt by 2050, including Africa’s highest mountain, some of the Alps and Yosemite National Park in the US.
In some incredibly bleak findings, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco) believes this is ‘statistically and realistically unavoidable’.
Scientists used satellite data to identify 18,600 endangered glaciers across 50 worldwide landmarks which have legal protection.
If their predictions are true, it will mean Africa is about to lose all its glaciers – indicting the severity of climate change.
The loss of glaciers will have consequences for people in real time, with half of humanity depending on them for water.
These people would be short on drinking water and struggle to maintain their agricultural and power systems, possibly leading to serious food shortages.
International Union for Conservation of Nature director general, Audrey Azoulay, said: ‘When glaciers melt rapidly, millions of people face water scarcity and the increased risk of natural disasters such as flooding, and millions more may be displaced by the resulting rise in sea levels.’
Ice loss in World Heritage sites may have already caused nearly 5% of the global sea-level rise which took place between 2000 and 2020.
Glaciers in these places lose around 58 billion tonnes of ice a year.
For perspective, this is the total annual volume of water France and Spain use combined.
Glaciers at the two thirds of UN World Heritage sites not mentioned in the report have a chance of being saved – but only if the world sticks to its 2015 pact to limit global warming to 1.5°C, scientists say.
However, the UN said last week there is ‘no credible pathway’ to meeting this goal, saying the world is ‘nowhere near’ hitting this target.
The UK had its seventh-warmest October since records began in 1884, with Met Office data suggesting 2022 is on course to be the hottest in the country’s history.
Six of the UK’s 10 warmest Octobers on the near 250-year record have now occurred since 2000, while every month so far this year has been warmer than average.
Rishi Sunak has U-turned on attending the crucial Cop 27 environmental summit in Egypt later this month.
He previously said he was he was too busy dealing with the domestic economy to go but reversed this decision after major backlash.
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