The United Nations has warned that declining iceotilities threaten food and water supplies with billions of people all over the world, because the current “unprecedented” fusion rates will have irreparable consequences.
Two -thirds of all irrigated agriculture in the world are likely to be affected somehow by the decline in ice rivers and the decrease in snowfall in the mountainous regions, driven by the climate crisis, according to UNESCO a report.
More than a billion people live in mountainous areas, including in developing countries, up to half, they are already suffering from food insecurity. It is possible that it will get worse, because the production of food in such areas depends on mountain water, and the snow and ice rivers dissolve, according to what he said. Global Water Development Report 2025.
Advanced countries are also at risk: in the United States, for example, Colorado River Basin in dehydration Since 2000, high temperatures mean that more precipitation has decreased with precipitation, which explodes more quickly than mountain snow, which exacerbates dry conditions.
Audrey Azoulay, General Manager UNESCOHe said: “Regardless of where we live, we all somehow depend on mountains and ice rivers. But these natural water towers face an imminent danger. This report shows the urgent need for work.”
Ice change rate is the worst ever, according to the separate research on the World Meteorological Organization, which The annual climate report reported this week. The study found that the largest three -year loss on the ice block in the past three years.
East Africa has lost 80 % of the ice rivers in places, and in the Andes Mountains, a third and a half of the ice rivers have been melted since 1998. Icebergs In the mountains of the Alps and the Pyrenees, the worst in Europe, it shrunk by almost 40 % in the same period.
Abu Amani, UNESCO Director of Water Science, added that the decline in ice rivers had an additional effect. “The melting of the ice rivers has an effect on a reflection [solar] He warned warning against radiation and this will affect the entire climate system.
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More snowns will also result in snowfall A major factor behind the formation of collapse. The water collection can also be released from the melting of the ice rivers, which causes Surprising floods in valleys or for people who live at the bottom of the slopes. The rugged solid soil is also dissolved and released Methane is from the mountain soils revealed by the melting of the ice rivers.
A previous study, published last month in the magazine magazine, which was reviewed by the counterparts, found this Half of the global ice mass will be lost by the end of the centuryIf global heating does not stop. “The mountainous ice rivers contain some of the largest freshwater tanks on the face of the earth. In the summer, Millette provides water supplies for a billion people and maintains a huge amount of industry and agriculture. Impact. [of such melting] He will feel the way that exceeds those who immediately head out of ice rivers. “
These effects come at the same time when Many food sources are already under pressure. Alvaro Lario, head of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the President of the United Nations Water, called for more support for people living in injured mountainous areas. He said: “The water flows down, but the lack of food security rises arduous.
“We must invest in their flexibility to protect the ice rivers, rivers and the common future for all of us.”
