Discovery at world’s most militarised glacier gives hope against climate change

A startling new discovery at world’s most militarised glacier might put climate activists on the backfoot as deniers of climate change are celebrating.

A surprising image from National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) revealed that Asia’s Karakoram mountain range has been gaining ice and merging, contrary to the popular belief that glaciers are melting due to global warming.

The image taken by the International Space Station (ISS) in 2023 shows that the Siachen glacier is slowly merging with the Lolofond and Teram Shehr glaciers.

Siachen is considered the most dangerous glacier on Earth as it is at the borders of three nuclear powered states, China, Pakistan, India - as well as conflict-affected nation Afghanistan.

The South Asian neighbours Pakistan and India have exchanged blows to take control of the region and both nations have been positioning troops on their side of the glacier since 1984.

This new discovery comes as a ray for hope as several climate studies have found that most glaciers worldwide are melting faster due to rising temperatures.

However, this is not the first report of localised glacial growth as previously Antarctica was also discovered to be reversing its decade long trend of melting.

Researchers based in Shanghai concluded in May that the Earth’s southernmost continent has seen a record amount of ice forming since 2021.

Despite isolated cases of ice accumulation, climate change still remains one of the greatest threats to the world as a 2023 study in Earth System Science Data warned that the merger of three glaciers in Asia’s Karakoram range might not last for long due to rising global temperatures.

NASA Earth Observatory revealed that the temperature of the Earth has risen by 1.1° Celsius since 1880.