Melting glacier named after Glasgow as COP26 kicks off in Scotland

British scientists have named a rapidly melting glacier in Antarctica after Glasgow, the Scottish city hosting this year's COP26 global climate conference, in an effort to call attention to global warming, London announced on Sunday.
Several other nameless glaciers were likewise christened after cities which have hosted important climate summits – including Geneva, site of the first international climate conference in 1979, and Berlin, which hosted the first Conference of Parties (COP), in 1995.
"By naming this glittering giant of nature after the city where next week humankind will gather to fight for the future of the planet, we have a stark reminder of what we are working to preserve," British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said in the statement.
He said he hoped for a "spirit of responsibility and ambition" to keep alive the target of limiting global warming to a maximum of 1.5 degrees Celsius compared to pre-industrial levels.
"We know that, if we continue on the current emissions path, we're heading for 2.7 degrees of warming (by the end of the century)," scientist Heather Selley, who monitors the glaciers via satellites, told the BBC.
"The consequences this will have for the intensity and regularity of events such as droughts, floods, cyclones, and issues with crop yields, etc," were clear, she added.
The Leeds University researcher stressed that COP26 was crucial in counteracting this development, to prevent "a downward spiral with continuing reliance on fossil fuels and the pumping of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere."
According to their research, the glaciers along the Getz Coast in the west of Antarctica have lost a total of 315 billion tons of ice during the past 25 years, the equivalent of 126 million Olympic swimming pools.
The Glasgow glacier is 104 kilometres long and, with an area of 2,630 square kilometres, about 15 times the size of the Scottish city.
The COP26 conference officially begins on Sunday.