Mountain glaciers are melting at an accelerating rate.
How do we know? 📐
Scientists have been making field measurements of glaciers like this one since the 1960s, as well as using aerial and satellite imagery to track the size of glaciers.
In 2022, a survey of 37 mountain glaciers across the globe found that 34 of those glaciers had lost mass. Scientists found that, on average, glaciers lost more than 3 feet (one meter) of ice thickness that year, and that ice loss from mountain glaciers globally has been accelerating over time.
Even in the far north and in a wet climate, Norway’s Ålfotbreen glacier, pictured above, is rapidly diminishing. This glacier had grown as recently as the 1990s, but has been shrinking since then due to more frequent and intense heat waves.
Video description:
A short video that fades back and forth between two satellite images. Both images show the same glacier, in August 2003 and September 2022. In the 2022 image, the glacier is smaller. Both images were taken during summers where significant melting occurred and in both cases the glacial ice is slightly gray or brown, because the previous winter’s snow had largely melted off the glacier.
The landscape consists of light brown mountains with layered rock ledges. Dark green forests cover the lower slopes and foothills.
#NASA #climatechange #Earth #glaciers
Sustainable construction is moving from ESG aspiration to financial discipline. More than 830 companies and investors now back TNFD nature-risk disclosure, including investors with $26tr under management and listed firms worth $10.5tr. For developers, designers and material suppliers, environmental sustainability in construction is becoming inseparable from balance-sheet risk, whole life carbon, embodied carbon and credible whole life carbon assessment.
Climate exposure is also redefining sustainable building design. Insurers are reported to be retreating from some climate-risk cover, making life cycle cost, building lifecycle performance and resilience central to investment decisions. Satellite evidence of uneven urban subsidence, including coastal Jakarta sinking by up to 7cm a year in some areas, underlines the need for sustainable design, low carbon design, robust foundations, drainage and green infrastructure from the earliest project stages. Southern England’s severe water stress and tougher regulatory checks on corporate water use reinforce the commercial case for energy-efficient buildings, water-conscious eco-design for buildings and sustainable urban development.
Materials transparency is becoming a decisive test for green construction. Think Timber’s new pricing and supply-chain data platform points to the practical data needed to scale renewable building materials, green building materials and low carbon construction materials beyond flagship schemes. Stronger visibility over timber supply, sustainable material specification and embodied carbon in materials supports lifecycle assessment, environmental product declarations (EPDs), resource efficiency in construction and more reliable procurement for net zero carbon buildings.
The defence of the EU emissions trading system by energy and business groups signals intensifying pressure on cement, steel and other carbon-heavy inputs. The carbon footprint of construction will be priced more directly, accelerating demand for low embodied carbon materials, carbon footprint reduction, carbon neutral construction and decarbonising the built environment. Firms pursuing net zero whole life carbon will need circular economy thinking, circular economy in construction, circular construction strategies and end-of-life reuse in construction rather than isolated product substitutions.
UK construction output fell 1% in the second quarter, sharpening the commercial test for sustainable building practices. The strongest firms will make low-impact construction, eco-friendly construction and net zero carbon delivery repeatable rather than bespoke. BREEAM, BREEAM v7 and similar frameworks will matter most where they support life cycle thinking in construction, measurable building performance and lower environmental impact of construction. Green building is no longer a marketing claim; it is risk management, insurability and long-term asset protection.
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