The growing impact of local weather change and world warming, which led land glaciers in Türkiye to soften and shrink by 30%-35%, may steer all mountain and valley glaciers towards extinction in 50 years, Turkish consultants warned lately.
The presence of glaciers within the poles, which prevents the world from overheating by reflecting the solar’s rays, has decreased by virtually half for the reason that Seventies.
However, these losses because of the influence of local weather change will not be restricted to the polar ice caps. The land glaciers within the mountains, which feed the atmosphere when it comes to water assets, are additionally melting.
Professor Mehmet Akif Sarıkaya, lecturer on the Eurasia Earth Sciences Institute Solid Earth Department of Istanbul Technical University (ITU), stated that polar glaciers are giant in scale, whereas mountain glaciers are smaller.
Reiterating that each forms of glaciers misplaced mass and melted with the local weather disaster, Sarıkaya stated: “In this respect, it is not possible to distinguish the two from each other. Since polar glaciers are much larger, their melting mechanism is not as fast as those on land. The melting of glaciers in mid-latitude regions like ours takes place much faster.”
Explaining that the growing temperatures after industrialization decreased the presence of glaciers in Türkiye in addition to in the remainder of the world, Sarıkaya emphasised that land glaciers are the primary water assets, and the melting of those glaciers means a lower in water assets.
Noting that the glaciers in Anatolia are comparatively small in comparison with different components of the world and that the melting of the present glaciers won’t have a big influence, Sarıkaya famous that there are 51 glacier zones in Türkiye, at 12 areas, encompassing a complete space of 10 sq. kilometers (3.86 sq. miles).
“Our largest glacier situated at the top of Mount Ararat contracted from 8 square kilometers in 1976 to 5 square kilometers today. Overall, there is a 30%-35% area reduction in all our glaciers,” Sarıkaya stated.
“Our glaciers in the Cilo Mountains of Hakkari have shrunk by 50%-60% in the last 100 years. In our projection studies, we assume that if the warming continues at this rate, the glacier in Erciyes will disappear completely,” he added.
Attributing the human influence and the temperature data world wide, which certainly peaked in the beginning of the week, Sarıkaya reiterated that the melting of glaciers accelerates and negatively impacts water assets.
Impact on forest fires
Another Turkish educational, however, said that along with local weather change affecting the rise in glacial melting, it additionally not directly triggers wildfires.
The growing melting of the polar glaciers, which stop the world from overheating by reflecting about 80% of the sunrays, is growing the quantity and frequency of maximum climate occasions by affecting the hydrometeorological steadiness, Murat Türkeş, a member of the board of administrators of Türkiye’s Bogazici University Climate Change and Policy Application and Research Center, advised Anadolu Agency (AA).
These climate occasions, which manifest themselves as a rise in temperatures, drought, modifications in precipitation regime and harder-blowing winds, are essential components inflicting forest fires.
Türkeş stated the ice sphere, consisting of polar, continental glaciers, glacial shields and sea glaciers, in addition to Alpine valley glaciers in excessive mountains, is likely one of the elements that make up the local weather system.
For the survival of the glaciers, it ought to snow, and there needs to be a local weather that permits the snow to stay on the bottom for some time and be positioned across the glacier on the mountains, he stated. Türkeş additional stated, “That’s where the problem arises.”
“In the last 50 years, glaciers in many regions of the world have been shrinking in volume and area because the climate has been warming, snowfall is decreasing, and even if it snows, air temperatures have been increasing causing snow to melt rapidly. The glaciers are not being fed,” he defined.
Analyzing the state of affairs Türkiye has been witnessing recently, he stated, “If the glaciers continue to melt at this rate, the poles will warm up over the next century, and a world in which they completely melt will be perhaps 10 degrees Celsius (50 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer than today.”
“This means that tropical, very hot, very dry conditions” would take the stage within the nation, he famous.
Source: www.dailysabah.com
