glaciers

The Thwaites Glacier in Antarctica is seen in this undated image from NASA. Areas of the glacier may be undergoing "vigorous melting" from warm ocean water caused by climate change, researchers say.

New research on Antarctica's Thwaites Glacier could reshape sea-level rise predictions

5:31pm May 21, 2024

by Joe Hernandez

At 80 miles across, Thwaites is the world's widest glacier. It has been nicknamed the "Doomsday Glacier" for the catastrophic effects its thawing could have on global sea-level rise.

Umesh Balal, an activist and member of the Indigenous Magar people of Nepal, says people with disabilities need to be part of the climate conversation.

This 28-year-old from Nepal is telling COP28: Don't forget people with disabilities

3:10pm December 12, 2023

by Ruchi Kumar

Umesh Balal is determined to make the voices of people with disabilities, young people and Indigenous people heard at the world's largest meeting on climate change.

A view of the Pakistani territory of Baltistan from the heights of the mountain above the village of Chunda. The patches of white in the foreground are snow and water. The patches of silver in the distance are clouds that shroud the peaks of most mountains in Baltistan. The territory boasts towering peaks, including K2, the world's second highest mountain.

A glacier baby is born: Mating glaciers to replace water lost to climate change

10:06pm September 03, 2023

by Diaa Hadid

Residents of Pakistan's Himalayan region turn to science and folklore, with backing from the U.N. They're erecting ice towers, harvesting avalanches and performing an ancient glacier ritual.

An estimated 15 million people around the world are threatened by floods from glacial lakes, according to recent research.And the danger is growing as Earth heats up. Nepal is ground zero for research about dangerous glacial lakes, in part because the mountainous country is on the front lines of the problem.

The race to protect people from dangerous glacial lakes

4:14pm April 19, 2023

by Rebecca Hersher

An estimated 15 million people are threatened by floods that happen when glaciers melt rapidly. Nepal's Himalayan communities are on the front lines.

Africa's last remaining glaciers, including on Mount Kilimanjaro, are expected to melt by 2050. The mountain is seen here in 2009.

World News

Glaciers from Yellowstone to Kilimanjaro are predicted to disappear by 2050

3:05pm November 03, 2022

by Laurel Wamsley

A new report says glaciers in a third of UNESCO World Heritage sites will disappear. Two-thirds of glaciers in the heritage sites can be saved — but only if carbon emissions are cut quickly, it says.

An aerial view of icebergs and the ice sheet near Pituffik, Greenland.

Science

How glaciers melted 20,000 years ago may offer clues about climate change's effects

1:19pm October 06, 2022

by Becky Sullivan

New research out of the British Antarctic Survey found thousands of underground channels left by ice age glacial melt. The findings could improve the accuracy of modern-day models of sea level rise.

After a portion of the Nanda Devi glacier broke off in northern India on Sunday, people inspect a site near a damaged hydropower project at Reni village in Chamoli district in the country's Uttarakhand state.

World News

Scores Are Feared Dead In India After Himalayan Glacier Breaks Away

12:32pm February 07, 2021

by Lauren Frayer

At least 140 people are missing after a hydroelectric dam near the glacier was swept away in a deluge of water, rock and debris. "It came very fast. There was no time to alert anyone," a witness said.

Shamim Banno, 55, walks up the Harchi Valley after she finished milking her cow. Farmers in the Harchi Valley in Pakistan's highlands have enjoyed a close relationship with their glacier that snakes between two mountain peaks.

'Maybe It Will Destroy Everything': Pakistan's Melting Glaciers Cause Alarm

3:27pm November 21, 2019

Pollution and global warming are causing glaciers to melt and form unstable lakes in the north of the country. NPR visits a valley where farms were destroyed by glacial floods.

This oblique view of the Himalayan landscape was captured by a KH-9 Hexagon satellite on Dec. 20, 1975, on the border between eastern Nepal and Sikkim, India.

I Spy, Via Spy Satellite: Melting Himalayan Glaciers

5:12pm June 19, 2019

by Pien Huang

Scientists are using old spy satellite images to measure the effects of climate change. They're finding that glaciers in the Himalayas are melting twice as fast as they were a few decades earlier.

The Ngozumpa Glacier in the Himalayas of Nepal, filling the valley in the foreground, now contains meltwater pools.

Report: Global Warming Could Melt At Least A Third Of Himalayan Glaciers

3:46pm February 05, 2019

by Danielle Preiss

If temperatures continue to rise, glaciers would begin to disappear, with a serious impact on the area's water resources.