Name: World nearing peak glacier extinction
Uploaded: 2025-12-18T18:44:56.173Z
Duration: 3 min 18 s
Description: AccuWeather Vice President of Forecast Operations Dan DePodwin and AccuWeather Climate Expert Brett Anderson discuss the top headlines related to climate change in the December 19 edition of Climate In The News.

AccuWeather Vice President of Forecast Operations Dan DePodwin and AccuWeather Climate Expert Brett Anderson discuss the top headlines related to climate change in the December 19 edition of Climate In The News.

Recent findings indicate that the world is experiencing a significant loss of glaciers, with projections suggesting that between 2,000 and 4,000 glaciers could disappear completely by the middle of the century, depending on future warming scenarios. Even if global temperatures stabilize, nearly 39% of glaciers are expected to be lost due to existing warming, with smaller glaciers in Europe and South America particularly at risk.

In addition, studies show that polar bears are undergoing genetic changes in response to the warming Arctic. Research on polar bears in Greenland has found that some populations are adapting their diets and biology, with southeastern Greenland bears exhibiting genetic differences and a shift toward more plant-based diets. Despite these adaptations, projections warn that at least two-thirds of the polar bear population could be lost by 2050, with possible extinction by 2100.

World nearing 'peak glacier extinction'

Today, we're looking at two visible impacts of climate change. First, the rapid loss of glaciers, and then how polar bears' DNA is changing. Brett, our first story is from CNN that dives into how quickly the glaciers, about 200,000 of them around the world, how quickly they are disappearing. Yeah, very sobering here, actually. 2,000 to 4,000 could be lost, completely extinct by mid-century. This is depending on the warming scenario. That's very key. Between 2000 and 2023, Dan, we've lost over 7,000 billion tons of ice, about 300 billion tons per year at that rate. That is a lot of ice, and it seems like the trend will only continue and may accelerate going forward. Depends on the amount of warming in the atmosphere, though. Yeah, the warming. We talk about 1.5 degrees Celsius warming, which is, again, what the average is. That would equal about 2,000 glaciers lost by 2041. But if we warm to 4 degrees Celsius warming, we're looking at over 4,000 lost by mid-century. And it seems like those thresholds, too, 1.5 degrees Celsius threshold, half the glaciers currently would be lost, or half would be left, and then just 20% left in a 2.7 degrees Celsius threshold, so about double the warming. So the warming does matter in terms of how much is lost. What glaciers are most at risk? Yeah, we're talking about smaller glaciers, of course, which makes sense. Glaciers in Europe and parts of South America could be disappearing over the next two decades. Even if we stop warming altogether, we just stabilize, it's still not good news. We're talking about a loss of 39% of glaciers. Yeah, certainly, it's baked in given the amount of warming that's already occurred. Glaciers are obviously very important, Brett, to water source, cultural importance to different areas and people who live near them. Our second story today from EarthSky that focuses on polar bears and how their actual biology, their DNA, is changing to adapt to a warming world. What did the study find, Brett? Yeah, again, the Arctic Ocean is the warmest state in the past 125,000 years, which is incredible. And so based on that warming, what we've seen, the projections are at least two-thirds of the polar bear population may be lost by 2050, total extinction by 2100. So that's certainly very concerning. It's not too far away, 2100, that all polar bears could be extinct. It does seem, though, that this new study finds that some polar bears may be actually adapting in sort of real time to this changing climate. Yeah, they looked at two groups of polar bears, one in northeastern Greenland, one in southeastern Greenland, where it is warmer. And what they found was the southeastern Greenland polar bears, they're genetically different from their northeastern neighbors. And what they're finding is that they may be adapting to the warming world. And it seems like also, or I guess one of the ways that they are adapting is through the diet and what they're eating. And I guess what they found was some of these polar bears in the southeast are eating more plant-based diets, which would make sense with the warming world. Yeah, so certainly a lot of interesting findings from this study about how polar bears are adapting and their biology is changing as the climate continues to warm. Thank you, Brett. For other stories and information about climate, you can find that at accuweather.com slash climate.

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