Nature Communications, 10 December 2024 Mountain permafrost makes up 30% of global permafrost area, and helps preserve the stability of many high altitude steep mountain slopes. Permafrost thawing and degradation causes far-reaching impacts and risks to both human safety and infrastructure, as well as on ecosystems and hydrological processes. In this study, decadal ground temperature […]
Geophysical Research Letters, 8 December 2024 Melting Antarctic ice releases freshwater into the Southern Ocean, with profound impacts on regional and global climate systems, as well as sea-level rise. A new study projects how the amount of freshwater released into the ocean through ice shelf subsurface melting, iceberg calving, and surface meltwater runoff will change […]
Critical ecosystem stability thresholds are already being crossed in permafrost regions today. These growing impacts will worsen and grow more widespread with every increment of warming above 1.5°C. Key topics include the state of monitoring, measuring, and accounting for carbon dioxide and methane emissions from permafrost thaw and our current climate trajectory. Speakers included Dr. […]
Nature Communications, 3 December 2024 This new study used a range of climate models to predict when we could see the first ice-free day in the Arctic Ocean, which IPCC AR6 noted was likely to occur by mid-century even under low emissions scenarios. The study found that the earliest ice-free day could occur within just […]
All side events held at the COP29 Cryosphere Pavilion were livestreamed and saved to ICCI’s YouTube channel. They are organized into several playlists, including: ice sheets and sea level rise; mountain glaciers and snow loss; permafrost thaw; disappearing sea ice; and polar ocean acidification, warming and freshening. While the sound quality of some recordings is […]
Communications Earth & Environment, 17 October 2024 Satellite observations show that the average rate of sea-level rise worldwide has doubled during the past three decades, due to warming causing expansion of the ocean and increasing ice losses from the cryosphere (glaciers, ice sheets). In the period between 1993 and 2024, global sea levels rose by […]
The Cryosphere, 8 October 2024 Researchers have linked El Niño events to loss of glacier ice and snow in the Peruvian Andes, raising alarm over the future of these high-mountain water resources. El Niño, a climate phenomenon that occurs every two to seven years, warms ocean temperatures in the eastern Pacific, affecting weather worldwide. The study, using […]
The Cryosphere, 25 September 2024 Most projections of future sea-level rise deal with timescales of decades (2100), or occasionally to the year 2300. However, ice losses from Antarctica will not stop for thousands of years because of the inertia of the ice sheet’s response to global warming from fossil fuel emissions. In a new study, […]
Preceding the UNGA high-level General Debate on Sept. 24, this side event brought together cryosphere science and policy voices to explain how polar regions can be more strongly integrated into global climate conversation. Lead organizers included the Foundation Prince Albert II of Monaco, Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center, and the Woodwell Climate Research Institute as […]
The Cryosphere, 5 September 2024 Deep fractures in the Greenland Ice Sheet are less likely to refreeze and close at threshold temperatures well below freezing ( −8 °C), worsening the impacts of meltwater lake drainage events and destabilizing the ice as temperatures rise with global warming. Already today, crevasses splinter deep into the ice sheet and […]
Dr. Paul Bierman, Professor of Environmental Science at the University of Vermont, summarized his recent paper on ancient soil remains from an ice core taken at Summit Station, at nearly the highest point of the ice sheet (3 kilometers of ice). Fossils in the sediment reveal that this site was ice-free in Earth’s not-so-distant past, […]
Earth’s Future, 4 September 2024 An updated model comparison experiment (ISMIP6 Antarctica 2300) has provided the first multi-model and multi-century projections of Antarctic Ice Sheet loss to the year 2300. Using 16 different ice sheet models, authors highlight the sharp risk of triggering large increases in Antarctic ice loss accelerating after the year 2100 if […]
Nature Cities, 26 August 2024 Current measures taken by most coastal cities to adapt to climate change, especially in light of cryosphere-related impacts such as rising seas, extreme weather and flooding, are presently inadequate, according to this new study published in advance of the upcoming IPCC Special Report on Cities. Authors systematically evaluated the strategies […]
United Nations and WMO, 26 August 2024 In Tonga, UN Secretary-General António Guterres released a special briefing on sea-level rise alongside the World Meteorological Organization’s (WMO’s) State of the Climate in the South-West Pacific 2023 Report. The UNSG’s brief summarizes the latest science on future sea level-rise at a global and regional level, with a […]
Global impacts, especially loss and damage, from cryosphere feedbacks will be largely permanent on human timescales, beyond adaptation limits for billions living in coastal or mountain-dependent regions if carbon emissions overshoot 1.5°C. This session outlined the latest science on projected feedbacks from ice sheets and glaciers in the context of implementation timeframes. Dr. Florence Colleoni […]