World's glaciers melting faster than ever recorded

BBC
Mark Poynting
Climate and environment researcher

The world's glaciers are melting faster than ever recorded under the impact of climate change, according to the most comprehensive scientific analysis to date.

Mountain glaciers - frozen rivers of ice – act as a freshwater resource for millions of people worldwide and lock up enough water to raise global sea-levels by 32cm (13in) if they melted entirely.

But since the turn of the century, they have lost more than 6,500 billion tonnes – or 5% – of their ice.

And the pace of melting is increasing. Over the past decade or so, glacier losses were more than a third higher than during the period 2000-2011.

The study combined more than 230 regional estimates from 35 research teams around the world, making scientists even more confident about exactly how fast glaciers are melting, and how they will evolve in the future.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy4ly8vde85o