Glaciers melting may be a common occurrence but over the centuries, it has become more frequent and more rapid. According to a new study, the melting of glacial ice is mainly because of several man-made factors.
Factors include aerosols and greenhouse emissions that are quickly proving to be dangerous to the environment. Humans have caused glacial loss between year 1851 and 2010, at least, a quarter of it. Between 1991 and 2010, humans caused 69 percent of glacier melting again.
Not that it's hard to believe but a recent study has somehow confirmed the idea.
"In a sense, we got a confirmation that by now, it is really mostly humans that are responsible for the melting glaciers," said Ben Marzeion, lead researcher at the University of Innsbruck in Austria.
Marzeion and his team published their research at the Science Express journal. They employed "state-of-the art modeling techniques, relying on 12 climate models. The reports analyzed were from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. It's a group of climate-change experts organized by the United Nations.
The team in Austria combined the models and data from the Randolph Glacier Inventory. The latter is a catalog of about 200,000 glaciers. Data combined were then used to create a computer model that integrated only the natural and human factors. Another model was created to show natural contributions to the melting.
Data from 1851 to 2010 include a total 159 years of coverage. What is ironic though is that glaciers in Antarctica were not included in the study simply because there was not enough data available.
Human emissions as the dominant cause of melting raised world sea level according to the study. Aside from this, snowfall has been declining because of the rising temperatures, which started in the late 1800s.
"The big majority of glaciers have been retreating over the past century. We even have an accelerated retreat in recent decades." Glaciers have also varied widely - many Alpine glaciers advanced in the 1970s and 1980s," said the head of the World Glacier Monitoring Service Michael Zemp.
