La Excellence IAS 
They’re melting beneath our feet — and the consequences could be colossal.
The latest global glacier reports sound a stark warning: our frozen giants are disappearing—along with the stability they provide.
📉 What’s Happening?
• 40% of the world’s glaciers are already doomed due to past warming—and this could rise to 75% if temperatures hit roughly 2.7 °C above pre-industrial levels .
• 7 trillion tonnes of glacier ice have melted since 2000, with a record 604 billion tonnes lost in 2023 alone .
• Ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica have seen melt rates quadruple since the 1990s, making them top contributors to sea-level rise .
🌊 Why It Matters
• Glaciers are water towers for 2 billion people—rivers like the Ganges and Colorado rely on them .
• Their melt adds 0.2–0.6 mm/year to sea-level rise, an impact expected to grow .
• Glacier collapse (like Blatten, Switzerland) can unleash avalanches, floods, and devastate mountain communities .
🔬 Bigger Picture
• Five of the last six years have seen record glacier retreat .
• 2025 declared International Year of Glaciers’ Preservation, highlighting urgent action and scientific monitoring .
• Even small fractions of temperature reduction can drastically slow glacier loss and save trillions of tonnes of ice .
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For UPSC aspirants, this ties into Environment (GS III), Geography (GS I), Disaster Management, SDGs, and Climate Change policy.
La Excellence — melting myths, not glaciers.
#GlacierMeltdown #SeaLevelRise #ClimateSources #UPSCEnvironment #UPSC2025 #LaExcellence #IASHyderabad
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