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a1371today at 4:29 PM5 repliesview on HN

I don't understand why a glacier would survive longer in the 4°C scenario than 2.5°C but this seems to suggest so.


Replies

abdullahkhalidstoday at 5:05 PM

The system is highly non-linear and has a lot of flippable components. For example, average temperature increase will cause the AMOC to collapse which will make parts of Europe cooler (while also increasing extreme weather events).

Similar things could happen with whichever glacier you are looking at.

burkamantoday at 5:13 PM

The data comes from this paper, I don't immediately see an answer to this question though: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-025-02513-9. My guess is that the climate is complicated and the planet doesn't warm evenly, so different emissions scenarios might imply different regions warm more quickly. Not all the glaciers on the site survive longer in the +4 scenario, it's only some parts of the world.

chunky1994today at 5:56 PM

That's just an artifact of the graphical display. This paper shows that's not the case (see fig 2): https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-025-02513-9

Perz1valtoday at 4:33 PM

Water has the highest density at 4°C, but I have no idea how that'd relate

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cyberaxtoday at 7:10 PM

More precipitation in a given area, resulting in more snow accumulating.