World’s Melting Glaciers Threaten Food and Water Supply for 2 Billion People: UN Report

The following is an excerpt from an article published 3/21/2025 by EcoWatch. The source article can be accessed by the link in the last sentence.

“Climate change is accelerating glacier melt, decreasing snow cover, increasing permafrost thaw, and causing more extreme rainfall events and natural hazards leading to more variable, erratic and uncertain water flows,” the press release said. “This highlights the urgency of improving mountain water governance through integrated river basin management, finance, and knowledge- and capacity-building, to meet the world’s ever-growing demand for water.”

Mountain waters are essential to the food and energy security of billions of people who live in and around mountainous regions, as well as areas downstream. These waters also support water-reliant industries important to economic growth.

Two-thirds of irrigated agriculture globally will likely be impacted by receding mountain glaciers and less snowfall in mountainous regions, the report said, as The Guardian reported.

“Regardless of where we live, we all depend in some way on mountains and glaciers. But these natural water towers are facing imminent peril. This report demonstrates the urgent need for action,” said UNESCO Director General Audrey Azoulay.

The glacial rate of change is the worst ever recorded, separate research by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said in its State of the Global Climate 2024 report, published earlier this week.