Global Changes
In 2025 there were around 200,000 glaciers across the globe, from Canadian mountain glaciers to Patagonian ice fields. Their presence is essential to animal life and human communities for many reasons. However, glaciers around the world are melting faster than in recorded history, due to human activity.
Map of glacier locations (in pink) around the world, from Global Land Ice Measurements from Space (GLIMS) Glacier Viewer, https://www.glims.org/glacierdata/index.php
Satellite view of the European Alps from January 17, 2011. Image: Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, https://science.nasa.gov/earth/earth-observatory/a-clear-view-of-the-alps-48845 A 2023 study found that by 2050, these mountain glaciers are expected to lose over one third of their 2023 ice mass, even if the climate did not change further.
Streams and rivers that form on top of the Greenland ice sheet during spring and summer are the main agent transporting melt runoff from the ice sheet to the ocean. Surface melting on the Greenland ice sheet has been increasing as the planet heats up. Photo: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (public domain) via Wikimedia Commons.
Big Changes Across the Globe
South Island, New Zealand
“While the glacier has always been dramatic in its advances and retreats, the rapidity of the present retreat is remarkable.”
DR. BRIAN ANDERSON, VICTORIA UNIVERSITY, 2012
One of just three glaciers in the world that descend into a rainforest, the Franz Josef Glacier sits at an elevation of nearly 8300 feet and extends down to just 820 feet above sea level. The glacier exists in such warm temperatures because it receives so much snow that its rate of accumulation outpaces its rate of melting. Meltwater from the glacier feeds into the temperate rainforest – creating a unique ecosystem and providing water for animals that are not found anywhere else in the world. Although the Franz Josef glacier regularly advances and retreats, it has entered a very rapid phase of retreat since 2008. In fact, scientists expect the glacier to lose 38% of its mass by 2100.
Mount Everest, Tibetan-Qinghai Plateau
“The world has never faced such a predictably massive threat to food production as that posed by the melting mountain glaciers of Asia.”
LESTER BROWN, EARTH POLICY INSTITUTE, 2008
Annual glacial meltwater on Mount Everest and its surrounding mountains feeds into rivers across China and India during dry season – when water is needed most to irrigate rice and wheat crops. Not only do hundreds of millions of people depend on these foods for their staple calories, but together China and India produce more than half of the world’s wheat and rice. Unfortunately, glaciologists estimate that two-thirds of the glaciers on the Tibet-Qinghai Plateau will be gone by 2060. Losing such an important source of irrigation could lead to devastating food shortages in countries where populations are booming.
La Paz & El Alto, Bolivia
“Twenty years ago there was a lot more water. We want to plant potatoes, maize, and beans but we don’t have enough water.”
LUCIA QUISPE, LA PAZ, 2009
The people of La Paz and El Alto, sprawling cities in South America, depend on glaciers for at least a third of their water. Glaciers high in the Andes provide not just drinking water, but power – Bolivia depends on hydropower for about half its electricity. But scientists monitoring the glaciers say the ice is showing signs of shrinking faster than previously forecast. Many glaciers in this portion of the Andes are expected to disappear completely by the late 21st century.
Himalayas, India & Pakistan
“There is evidence that the core of the glacier is melting. While some of the reasons are macro-level, like global warming, micro-level factors also precipitate the damage.”
PROFESSOR S. HASNAIN, JAWAHARLAL NEHRU UNIVERSITY, DELHI, 2004
The world’s longest mountain glacier outside of the polar regions, Siachen Glacier, sits in the Himalayas between India and Pakistan. Uninhabited by humans until 1983, the region is home to an amazing array of rare animals, such as the snow leopard, brown bear, ibex, and many birds. Unfortunately, this habitat is quickly being destroyed on two fronts: glacial retreat and pollution. Studies project that Himalayan glaciers could lose over one third of their ice mass by the end of the 21st century.