Pimentel (2025) Glaciers and climate change

Identification

• Journal: Elsevier eBooks
• Year: 2025
• Date: 2025-11-29
• Authors: Sam Pimentel
• DOI: 10.1016/b978-0-443-32838-1.00006-0

Research Groups

Trinity Western University, Langley, BC, Canada

Short Summary

This chapter reviews the role of glaciers as critical indicators of contemporary climate change, detailing their observed changes, drivers, simulation, and wide-ranging global impacts.

Objective

• To provide a comprehensive overview of glaciers as indicators of climate change, examining their observed changes, underlying drivers, mass-balance feedbacks, simulation of future evolution, and diverse global impacts.

Study Configuration

• Spatial Scale: Global, encompassing land ice masses including glaciers, ice caps, and ice sheets (Greenland and Antarctica).
• Temporal Scale: Contemporary period, with discussions extending to future projections of glacier evolution under climate change.

Methodology and Data

• Models used: The chapter discusses approaches for simulating glacier evolution under a changing climate, synthesizing findings from various modeling studies. Specific models are not detailed within this review.
• Data sources: The chapter synthesizes information from various observational methods, including mass balance measurements and repeat photography, to describe glacier change.

Main Results

• Glaciers are prominent and visually compelling indicators of contemporary anthropogenic climate change, exhibiting widespread retreat and diminishing ice masses globally.
• Glacier change is driven by climate factors, with significant mass-balance feedbacks influencing their evolution.
• Simulations are crucial for understanding future glacier evolution under various climate scenarios.
• The impacts of glacier change are extensive, including contributions to sea level rise, increased water stress, heightened natural hazards, implications for energy production, loss of cultural value, and threats to biodiversity.

Contributions

• This chapter provides a structured and comprehensive synthesis of current understanding regarding glaciers as climate change indicators, their dynamics, and their multifaceted global impacts, serving as a foundational reference for the topic.

Funding

• Not specified in the provided text.

Citation

@article{Pimentel2025Glaciers,
  author = {Pimentel, Sam},
  title = {Glaciers and climate change},
  journal = {Elsevier eBooks},
  year = {2025},
  doi = {10.1016/b978-0-443-32838-1.00006-0},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1016/b978-0-443-32838-1.00006-0}
}