The melting of glaciers due to climate change has serious implications for the ecosystem and human society. Discuss the effects of melting glaciers on the environment and the measures that can be taken to address this issue.

Effects of melting glacier on environment:

1. Ice Positive feedback loop Creation → Melting glaciers → Reduced albedo → Further global warming → more melting.

2. Rise in river level over short term & drying of rivers over long-term.

3. Changes in ground-water level → Depletion issues

4. Impact on local biodiversity [E.g] Loss of snow leopard habitat in Himalayas.

Disaster like Glacial lake outburst flood - [E.g] Kedarnath floods (2013)

Measures to address:

Short-term:

1. Limiting tourism and carbon emission over sensitive region.

2. Afforestation activity on high reaches of Himalayas

Long-term:

1. To tackle global warming by adhering to Paris agreement.

2. Creation of artificial glacier [E.g] Ice Stupas of Ladakh to reduce dependence on natural glacier

3. Carbon sequestration activities

Melting of glaciers at large scale can have multidimensional issue like sea-level rise floods etc. Therefore, it must be tackled through global cooperation under UNFCC

— Prajnanandan Giri · AIR 24