Grace Smith | December 1, 2022

Some of the world’s most major and famous glaciers will disappear after melting by 2050, according to a U.N. Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization report. These major glaciers include the Dolomites in Italy, the Yosemite and Yellowstone parks in the U.S., and Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania.

UNESCO observes and studies 18, 600 glaciers around the world, and said by 2050, a third of them will be gone because of climate change. By 2100, 50 percent of all World Heritage Site glaciers — well-known, large, and highly visible glaciers around the world — will have fully melted. Half of the world’s population relies on water from glaciers for domestic, agricultural, and power use.

“This report is a call to action. Only a rapid reduction in our CO2 emissions levels can save glaciers and the exceptional biodiversity that depends on them,” UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay said in a statement.

Keeping the global temperature increase at 1.3 degrees Celsius, compared to preindustrial levels, could save the other two-thirds of the World Heritage Site glaciers. Since 1970, the global temperature rise has been 1.7 degrees Celsius per century. But, according to the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, global temperatures are likely to increase by about 1.5 degrees Celsius by 2050 and two to four degrees Celsius by 2100.