Former Vice President Al Gore and Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre presented their global report on melting ice at a side event of the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen (COP 15) on Monday,  December 14th.

Read the report “Melting snow and ice. A call for action”.
Press release on the report
The event will be available as webcast on the UNFCCCs website (United Nations Climate Change Conference)

Danish Minister of Foreign Affairs Per Stig Møller and Greenland Premier Kuupik Kleist also participated to present a report on the melting of the Greenland ice sheet.

“The report shows that snow and ice are melting at an alarming rate, and that the cryosphere is very vulnerable to climate change. The most important new findings relate to Antarctica. Mighty Antarctica, which previously seemed immune to the loss of ice that has occurred in other areas, shows signs of a net reduction of ice on a similar scale to that of inland Greenland.

“This gives cause for concern. The overriding message is that we have to succeed in Copenhagen. The countries of the world must agree on measures that limit emissions of greenhouse gases, and restrict global warming to two degrees. Furthermore, we need an emergency plan for the crysosphere, with immediate measures to save as much of our ice and snow cover as possible. We should start by cutting emissions of short-lived drivers of climate change such as soot and ozone, which are not included in any climate agreement today, and we also need to pay more attention to short-lived greenhouse gases such as HFCs and methane. Measures to reduce these would have immediate effect and cost relatively little,” said Mr Støre.”  Read more of the press release here.

Findings also released this week included a report on the loss of glaciers in Tibet and what is causing it, from a group of scientists including NASA scientist James Hansen.  See the report findings below.

Both the Tibetan plateau and the glaciers are under threat from climate change and from China. China burns an immense amount of coal, and black soot from this coal burning is adding to the demise of the glaciers. China is also building walls and roads around the Tibetan plateau and altering the ecosystem of the grasslands there, according to a Tibetan delegation that spoke at the Copenhagen climate summit last week.  James Hansen and several other scientists released a paper on Monday, December 14th,  and found that reducing CO2 and black soot are necessary to save the glaciers and guarantee water for the people there in the coming years. The Tibetan plateau is a normally arid region to begin with and removing the glacier water would threaten all life there. Them scientists write:

“We find evidence that black soot aerosols deposited on Tibetan glaciers have been a significant contributing factor to observed rapid glacier retreat. Reduced black soot emissions, in addition to reduced greenhouse gases, may be required to avoid demise of Himalayan glaciers and retain the benefits of [...]