Glacier retreat: Mounting risks and global action

Mountains are vital sources of freshwater, supporting ecosystems and communities from high-altitude regions to densely populated downstream areas.

As the United Nations highlights, about 70 percent of the Earth's freshwater is stored in frozen form, including glaciers and ice sheets. Their accelerated melt – five of the past six years have marked record retreat – signals an escalating climate emergency.

Glaciers are shrinking at unprecedented rates. Over 600 glaciers have already disappeared, and more than 15 million people are vulnerable to flooding from glacial lakes. Nearly 2 billion people rely on water originating from mountain-fed river basins for drinking water, agriculture, clean energy and cultural practices.

As warming continues, glacier loss threatens water security, food production and disaster risks far beyond mountain regions.

China's cryosphere research provides early warnings of these accelerating changes. According to Wang Feiteng, a leading glaciologist at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, long-term field observations show that small glaciers – especially those under one square kilometer – are retreating rapidly, with many in northwestern arid regions projected to disappear by mid-century regardless of future rainfall. His research on the Urumqi No. 1 Glacier and Sichuan's No. 17 Glacier illustrates how previously snow-covered surfaces have turned into exposed rock and debris due to annual melt of five to eight meters.

The consequences of glacier loss reach far beyond the mountains. Reduced meltwater affects downstream agriculture, hydropower stability and ecosystems that depend on steady seasonal flows.

Meanwhile, thawing permafrost and expanding glacier lakes increase risks of landslides, flooding and infrastructure damage.

Countries are advancing monitoring networks, satellite-based observation, glacier prediction models and ecosystem-based adaptation. China's integrated "mountains-rivers-forests-farmlands-lakes-grasslands-deserts-ice" initiative, along with nature reserves and experimental measures to slow melt, demonstrates growing commitment.

Wang emphasizes that glacier protection is inseparable from global climate governance, renewable energy transition and public awareness.

On International Mountain Day, the message is clear: glaciers matter for water, food and livelihoods. Protecting them is essential not only for mountain communities but for global ecological security and sustainable development.

(Cover: The Muztagh Ata in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, northwest China, designed by CGTN's Huang Ruiqi.)