Glaciers are natural ice bodies that have existed for many years and have a state of motion along the ground, and are also an important freshwater resource on the surface. Glaciers are mainly distributed in the Antarctic and Arctic, and glaciers can only be formed in other areas on the high-altitude mountains.
It is well known that as the global climate warms, glaciers are melting more and more. It is worth noting that if the climate continues to warm, in addition to the increase in the melting of glaciers, the increase in the temperature inside glaciers will lead to an acceleration of ice flow, and even the disintegration of glaciers.
So some people have proposed that if all the glaciers on the earth melt, then the earth will not become the sea. However, the actual answer is no.
The scientific community has done relevant simulations of the melting of glaciers around the world, when the global glaciers all melt, the global sea level will rise by nearly 60 meters, in fact, the average altitude of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau is more than 4,000 meters, and the sea level rises by 60 meters, which will not make the earth fall into the ocean.
Does this mean we can sit back and relax? The answer is also no. According to the statistics of China's two glacier catalogs, from global warming in the 1950s to about 2010, about 8310 glaciers in China have completely disappeared, and the glaciers as a whole have shrunk by 12442.4 square kilometers.
From Tencent News & China Environmental Protection Foundation & L'Oréal Paris: "Guarding glacier white": 2022 China Glacier White Paper
Glacier ablation will cause permafrost ablation, reduce the function of frozen soil to conserve water sources, cause grassland degradation in related areas, and exacerbate land desertification. In addition, the desertified highlands become a source of sand and dust. At the same time, glacier melting will cause the lake to expand, affecting the surrounding ecology and species balance.
The strong melting of alpine glaciers can also lead to some natural disasters. For example, glacial lake collapses, floods, glacial mudslides, etc., are more prominent in the southeastern Tibetan Plateau and the Himalayas.
More dire consequence is that China's glacier melting could cause rivers to stop flowing, exacerbating the water crisis in the arid northwest, while also potentially affecting the southeast. In the future, perhaps the Yangtze River and the Yellow River may also stop flowing.
A large number of analyses have pointed out that the increase in global temperature caused by human emissions of greenhouse gases is the main cause of glacier melting. At the same time, industrial pollution such as black carbon aerosols settles on the surface of glaciers, resulting in a decrease in glacier albedo, which is also an important reason for accelerating glacier melting.
In order to prevent glaciers from melting and protect the living environment, people have also made many attempts. Swiss scientists have long used white wool blankets to block and reflect solar radiation on the Rhône River Glacier and The Gessen River Glacier, and experiments have proved that it can alleviate seasonal glacier melting by 60% to 70%.
In August 2020, a team from the Chinese Academy of Sciences covered the Dagu Glacier on the eastern edge of the Tibetan Plateau with a white reflective blanket covering an area of about 500 square meters, testing to manually slow the melting of the glacier.
From Tencent News & China Environmental Protection Foundation & L'Oréal Paris: "Guarding glacier white": 2022 China Glacier White Paper
In addition to these direct means, companies are also reducing carbon emissions in various ways. At present, L'Oréal has two factories in China that achieve zero carbon emissions, and it is expected that all L'Oréal plants will be 100% carbon neutral by 2025. Many of L'Oréal's raw materials come from nature. The widely concerned L'Oréal injection white bottle uses ferulic acid as the core whitening ingredient. In the extraction process of ferulic acid, a strong antioxidant, the green extraction method is used. This method reduces energy consumption and uses solvents that have minimal environmental impact.
In order to better reflect the concept of "guarding the whiteness of the skin", L'Oréal Paris and the news agency also jointly launched the "Guardian glacier white" public welfare event, it is reported that the original intention of the white bottle to protect the glacier is to "protect the skin white, but also to protect the last piece of the earth white". The campaign aims to promote emission reductions and thus contribute to the conservation of glaciers by calling for a low-carbon lifestyle.
The majority of consumers also start from themselves, in life to reduce disposable tableware and other non-essential consumption, less use of energy, less packaging, more use of glass, paper, aluminum and other recycled raw materials and relatively simple processing products.
Donation step page of the charity Mini Program
On the occasion of the 53rd World Earth Day, the "Guardian Glacier White" public welfare mini program introduced the mechanism of donating steps to protect the glacier, and the majority of consumers can realize the desire to guard the glacier and protect the earth through each step of the mini program, and build the common home of mankind.