Today, our journey takes us to Neko Harbor, one of the prime locations in this region to view glaciers. These towering walls of ice are a majestic sight, and a humbling reminder of the fragility of the natural systems that human beings depend upon for life as we know it.

As we began our journey, I wrote about the threats we face as Antarctica's glaciers melt and the world's oceans rise. Yet beyond the physical impacts that rising seas pose to coastlines, glaciers are important for many other reasons. We need them in order to preserve one of the basic necessities of life: clean drinking water.

Let's take a step back. As the global population tops 7 billion, nearly 800 million people do not have access to clean and safe drinking water. The climate crisis could make this problem worse.

As sea levels rise, saltwater can contaminate sources of freshwater near coastal cities and towns. When too much saltwater seeps into lakes, rivers or the soil, the water becomes undrinkable and unusable for agriculture.

Nearly 635 million people - one out of every 10 people in the world today - live in low-lying coastal areas that are susceptible to inundation and[...]

[Published in GreenNews - Read the original article]