Opinion: preserving glaciers is key to humanity’s survival
The survival of our civilisation – and even our species – hinges on our ability to protect the planet’s glaciers, writes scientist, hydrologist and glaciologist, John Pomeroy
Below is a brief excerpt from an op-ed by John Pomeroy published in Dialogue Earth on May 9, 2025. Click here to read the full piece.
The World Meterological Organization’s State of the Global Climate report published in March delivered a grim milestone: 2024 was the hottest in 175 years of record-keeping.
As temperatures soar, mountain glaciers, which are among the most sensitive indicators of climate change, are vanishing at an alarming rate. A landmark UN report released the same month laid bare the terrible toll. It details how these frozen mountain water reserves are vanishing and what their loss spells for humanity: limited water supplies, collapsing food systems and unravelling ecosystems.
We’ve long known that melting glaciers in Antarctica and Greenland threaten to drown swathes of Florida in the United States, East Anglia in the United Kingdom and Bangladesh and Sri Lanka in South Asia, and most small island states, under rising seas. But the breakneck retreat of mountain glaciers and snowpacks – already well underway – and what that portends for humanity, are less well known.
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