UN weather agency concerned over Earth’s melting ice

The United Nations meteorological office has declared that the cryosphere is now a top priority following increasing global impacts of diminishing sea ice and melting glaciers.

Delegates from the United Nations World Meteorological Organization (WMO) raised worry about the effects of melting glaciers and shrinking sea ice on sea level rise.

The cryosphere is a “hot topic not just for the Arctic and Antarctic,” according to WMO chairman Petteri Taalas, as the world’s melting ice continues to pose a global concern.

WMO said retreating glaciers affects people’s adaptation strategies and access to water resources.

More than a billion people rely on water from snow and glaciers melt which is carried by the major rivers of the world.

WMO member nations responded by calling for additional financing for more coordinated observations and predictions, as well as improved data interchange, research, and services, because “you cannot manage what you are not measuring,” according to the agency’s spokeswoman.

WMO detailed that ice sheet melt in Greenland and Antarctica is accelerating and is having “growing and cascading impacts on small island developing states and densely populated coastal areas.”

The UN weather agency called the Arctic permafrost a “sleeping giant” of greenhouse gases, storing twice as much carbon as in the atmosphere at present.

“Thawing mountains and Arctic permafrost create an increased risk of natural cascading hazards,” WMO said in a statement.

“Cryosphere changes in mountain areas are leading to an increased risk of hazards such as rockslides, glacier detachments, and floods,” the agency added.

Rapid melting was documented in the European Alps, shattering records for glacier melt due to a combination of insufficient winter snow, an inflow of Saharan dust, and heatwaves between May and early September last year.

For the 26th year in a straight, the Greenland Ice Sheet closed with a negative total mass balance.

In the middle of this, global mean sea level continues to rise to new highs. It more than doubled over the first decade of satellite data, from 2.27 millimeters per year from 1993 to 2002 to 4.6 millimeters per year from 2013 to 2022.