Scientists warn that many of New Zealand’s glaciers might vanish within a decade

Wellington, New Zealand

Climate Change continues to wreak havoc and if things don’t change, it could get worse. Scientists have warned that New Zealand’s glaciers are getting small and skeletal due to climate change. It has been predicted that they might disappear within a decade. 

An annual end-of-summer survey, that records the snowline of South Island glaciers has revealed continuous loss of snow and ice.

Each year, the Victoria University of Wellington, the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (Niwa) and the conversation department gather thousands of aerial pictures of these glaciers to measure the altitude of the snowline and to see how much of the previous winter’s snow has remained covering the glacier. 

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This snowline, also known as the equilibrium line altitude (ELA), allows scientists to evaluate a glacier’s health. If the glacier's size has decreased, then the line will be higher, because less snow remains. 

According to a principal scientist at Niwa, they expect these snowlines to be high because of the warm weather they’ve had and their instincts are confirmed. Dr Lauren Vargo from Victoria University said that the glaciers in New Zealand had lost mass over the past decade. 

New Zealand is experiencing more frequent extreme temperature, which is four to five times more extreme than what they expected in a climate with no long-term warming. In January, Niwa reported 2021 as New Zealand’s hottest year on records. 

Antarctica, last year week recorded its temperatures more than 40C warmer than the seasonal norms. 

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A Niwa climate scientist said this year’s survey showed a noticeable difference from the previous years. The scientist further added that the snowline elevations this year were high, which means much of the winter's snow has melted, leaving a lot of glacial ice exposed.

The long-term aerial survey started in 1977, giving a visual timeline of how much glaciers have retreated. Since this survey began, the global climate had warmed about 1.1C and Niwa estimated, that more than a third of the ice volume has been lost from the Southern Alps. 

Dr Andrew Lorrey, a principal scientist at Niwa said that the current scenario is a clear retreat, and is all because of this climate change. Within a decade, they predict many of their beloved glaciers will be gone. 

These implications are enormous. Glaciers are an important source of freshwater, and their periodic melting into rivers helps to irrigate farms and hydropower schemes but acting as a drought buffer. The melting ice contributes to the rising sea levels as well. 

“This will have far reaching impacts, such as altering our beautiful landscape, affecting the livelihoods of people who rely on these natural wonders for tourism, and flow on effects from decreased meltwater during periods of drought,” Lorrey said.   

This also emphasises the urgency of slowing the climate change because later the impacts are going to be costly and hard to avoid.  

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