Most of Western Canada's glaciers will melt in 80 years, University of Northern B.C. study finds

A study by international researchers using a supercomputer at the University of Northern British Columbia (UNBC) has found that most of Western Canada's glaciers will disappear by the year 2100.

The study, "Global Glacier Change in the 21st Century: Every Increase in Temperature Matters" was published Thursday in the journal Science.

"A child born today will witness the near-complete disappearance of one of western Canada's most iconic symbols glaciers," reads a statementfrom the university.

The statement goes on to describe how continued greenhouse gas emissions will "decimate" glaciers around the world in the decades ahead including those in Western Canada, which provide water during the late summer or during times of drought.

According to the study, by the end of the century, themajority of remaining glacier icewill exist in southeastern Alaska, the Northern Coast Mountains, Yukon, the northeastern Canadian and Russian Arctic, and mountains that border the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets.

"Even if global temperatures were to rise by 2 C above pre-industrial levels, mountains in the Middle East, Caucasus, Central Europe,Middle East, North Asia and Western Canada and the conterminous U.S. are projected to experience widespread deglaciation," David Rounce,lead author of the study and assistant professor at Carnegie Mellon University, said in the statement.

WATCH | Metro Vancouver scientists show how the glacier is retreating:

Metro Vancouvers last glacier is melting away

2 years ago

Duration 0:27

The Coquitlam Glacier's disappearing act is a symptom of the stress climate change is putting on our sources of fresh water.

By analyzing 440,000 satellite images processed by the supercomputer, the team concluded about half the world's glaciers are expected to disappear within 80 years.

Brian Menounos, a professor at UNBC and co-author of the study, said in the statement that thefindings confirm "results froman earlier studythat suggested "widespread deglaciation" inWestern Canada's mountains by the end of the century.

Smaller glaciers less than one square kilometre in size,which are common in the region will melt first.

"Many of our glaciers are in that size range, so we are expected to see widespread deglaciation for many of our mountains,"Menounossaid on CBC's On The Island.

This is under the current best-case scenario of reducing global warming to 1.5 C above pre-industrial levels.

While there is hope for some of the region'slarger glaciers if warming is limited to 1.5 C, itwill be hard to achieve, he says.

"That requires an investment from the individual up to the international community to really move away from greenhouse gases and that's primarily through decarbonization of our industries and way of life."

Menounous saysmelting glaciers will contribute to sea level rise, and can cause degradation to glacial watersheds,an important habitat for aquatic species including salmon.

'A very sobering finding': advocate

"It's a very sobering finding ...climate impacts are already here and many of them are happening faster than expected," said Jens Wietling,a forest and climate campaigner with the Sierra Club B.C.

He saysdisappearing glaciers could potentially lead to water insecurity in the province.

"We will lose freshwater sources for much of the year and we will be more vulnerable during times of drought."

Wietling says the province is in a unique position to take certain climate actions, including halting the extraction of fossil fuels from the groundand protecting old growth forests.

"We cannot reverse these changes. Once lost, glaciers cannot be re-created at time scales that work for generations," he said.

"It will take millions of years in some cases to see some of the impacts from our actions reversed in the future."