Study documents dramatic loss of remaining Pyrenees glaciers

Spanish scientists say Europe's southernmost glaciers will likely be reduced to ice patches in the next two decades due to climate change

MADRID -- Europe's southernmost glaciers will likely be reduced to ice patches in the next two decades due to climate change, as the shrinking of ice mass on the Pyrenees mountain range continues at the steady but rapid speed seen at least since the 1980s, Spanish scientists say in a new study. The Pyrenees, marking the natural border between Spain and France, saw three glaciers disappear or become reduced to stagnant strips of ice since 2011. In 17 of the two dozen remaining ice sheets, there’s been an average loss of 6.3 meters (20 feet) of ice thickness. Their mass also shrank over one-fifth on average, or 23%, in nearly one decade, according to the study published last week in the peer-reviewed Geophysical Research Letters. Its findings were announced to the media on Friday. The Spanish scientists blamed climate change for the retreat, and in particular a 1.5-degree-Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit) overall temperature increase in the Pyrenean region since the 19th century.