Ice and snow face permanent damage if warming overshoots 1.5°C, a UN report warns

The report, by 80 scientists for the International Cryosphere Climate Initiative and the UN Environment Programme, finds much of the damage would be permanent even if temperatures came back down to 1.5°C.

Warming since pre-industrial times

1.3 °C

The planet has warmed by 1.3°C since pre-industrial times, and the scientists say long-term warming should ideally be brought back below 1°C by 2150.

And us?

Under current policies, which lead to 2.8°C of warming, glaciers in the Rockies would keep less than 10 per cent of their ice mass; at 1.5°C, about 20 to 35 per cent would remain.

Snow and ice respond rapidly to every fraction of a degree of warming.

— James Kirkham, glaciologist and lead author