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An Antarctic glacier (archive image)
Photo: Ric Tapia / AP
Glasgow is now also in Antarctica: Researchers have named a rapidly melting glacier after the location of the UN climate summit, which starts in Scotland this Sunday (COP26).
The scientists at the British University of Leeds want to draw attention to climate change, as the British government announced.
Other previously unnamed glaciers were also given the names of “climate cities” that stand for important milestones: Geneva, for example, where the first climate conference took place in 1979.
Or Berlin as the location of the COP (Conference of the Parties) in 1995.
"The fact that we are naming this glittering giant of nature after the city where humanity gathers this week to fight for the future of the planet is a clear reminder of what we want to protect," said British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, according to the government release .
He hoped for an "atmosphere of responsibility and ambition" in Glasgow in order to keep the goal of global warming of a maximum of 1.5 degrees compared to the pre-industrial age alive.
However, Johnson is criticized by environmentalists even at home.
His government is considering opening a new oil field and even a coal mine for exploitation.
"We know that we are heading for 2.7 degrees warming by the end of the century if we continue with the current emissions," said scientist Heather Selley;
she observes the Antarctic region via satellites.
"This will have consequences for the intensity and regularity of events such as droughts, floods, cyclones and problems with food cultivation."
The COP26 is now the time to take countermeasures, said Selley.
Otherwise there is a threat of a downward spiral with further dependence on fossil fuels.
According to their research, the glaciers along the Getz Coast in western Antarctica have lost a total of 315 billion tons of ice over the past 25 years.
That corresponds to the content of 126 million Olympic swimming pools.
The Glasgow Glacier is 104 kilometers long and with an area of 2630 square kilometers about 15 times the size of the Scottish city.
The COP26 was officially opened there on Sunday.
che / dpa
