Earth's glaciers could be at least partially saved if greenhouse gas emissions and resulting global warming were limited to the Paris Agreement's most ambitious goals, a new study finds.

Why it matters: Glaciers are a vital source of freshwater for nearly 2 billion people, and their melt contributes to sea level rise.

Currently, the vast majority of the planet's glaciers are melting and shrinking in response to higher temperatures, greater rainfall and increased ocean temperatures that can eat away at the floating ice shelves of marine-terminating glaciers.

The United States plans to name an ambassador at large for the Arctic, reflecting the region's growing strategic and commercial importance as its shrinking opens up new sea lanes and vast oil and mineral resources.

Russia has reopened hundreds of Soviet-era military sites in the region, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on Friday, a day after visiting the Arctic, saying Russian capabilities there pose a strategic challenge to the 30-nation alliance.

Rescuers using drones resumed the search Tuesday for an estimated 13 hikers unaccounted-for following a powerful avalanche in northern Italy that killed at least seven people and is being blamed in large part on rising temperatures that are melting glaciers.

After rain hampered the search Monday, sunny weather on Tuesday allowed helicopters to bring more rescue teams up to the site on the Marmolada glacier, east of Bolzano in the Dolomites mountain range, even as hopes dimmed of finding anyone alive.