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How much had it already lost before those two years? If the same rate of loss continues, how long will it take to reach 100%?


Infinity if it’s a decay series, or 18 years if it’s a constant.


Sorry to break it up to you, but the warming is accelerating, as the amount of GHGs is increasing year-by-year. So it may take even less.


It wouldn't be an infinite decay even in a world with spherical cows because the ice mass is the value decaying and eventually the ice is no longer heavy enough to be called a glacier.


Which makes estimating this particularly tricky (and pointless) because there's no obvious point at which a mass of ice turns from "glacier" to "not glacier". Better to pick something erring far towards "totally obviously not glacier" as a reference point.


Climate and weather are cyclic, not linear.


The increase in CO2 is linear and as long as that continues to be the changes will be linear or higher.


What increase? EPA says USA has reduced CO2 emissions over past quarter century.

https://www.epa.gov/climate-indicators/climate-change-indica...


The USA offshored it. And the USA is not the entire world.


Their prices are artificially low due to their manufacturing pollution which negatively affects the entire world. Maybe consider environmental parity tariffs against those polluting countries. Or is The West too addicted to cheap stuff?


Would it ever reach 100% in anything short of a runaway greenhouse scenario?


I guess that depends on the definition of a glacier. If the ice/snow completely melts then I assume that would count as 100%. Even if it is replenished the following winter, if it all melts again the following summer then I don't think anyone would call that a glacier.


Why wouldn't it? The glaciers on the Kilimanjaro are expected to melt completely in the next few years.


The last time we think Earth was completely ice free was 35 million years ago.


It's not a "dramatic acceleration", unlike the article claims. It's a fairly linear long term trend: https://doi.glamos.ch/figures/volume_evolution.pdf. The past two years are slight outliers.


If this is a tipping point, then the way things charted in the past don't really matter...


Yes, but there's no reason to think so. Weather is highly variable in the short term, that's why climate analysis is done on multi-decade scales.


It is a continuing trend from the increase of CO2 since pre-industrial levels.




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