The Rhône glacier in the Swiss Alps in 2024
Fabrice Coffrini / AFP via Getty Images
Glaciers around the world have decreased by more than 5% on average since 2000, according to the most complete evaluation to date. This rapid merger rate has accelerated by more than a third in the last decade when climate change continues.
“Any degree of warming is important for glaciers,” says Gourmelen Christmas At the University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom. “They are a barometer for climate change.”
The new figures come from a global consortium of hundreds of researchers called the exercise of intercompressing the massive balance of glaciers. The group was aimed at reducing uncertainty over the quantity of 200,000 glaciers on the planet, using a standard procedure to assess different measures of their size change. This includes the gravity and elevation measures of 20 satellites as well as ground measurements.
Between 2000 and 2011, the glaciers founded at a rate of around 231 billion tonnes of ice per year on average, the researchers revealed. This merger rate increased between 2012 and 2023 to 314 billion tonnes per year, an acceleration of more than a third. 2023 saw a record mass loss of around 548 billion tonnes.
These figures comply with previous estimates. But this complete look “offers a little more confidence in the change we see on the glaciers”, explains Gourmelen, which is part of the consortium. “And there is a clear acceleration.”
In total, the thaw of about 7 billions of tonnes of ice ice since 2000 has increased the sea level by almost 2 centimeters, making this merger the second largest contributor to the elevation of the sea level so far, behind the expansion of water due to Reheat the oceans.
“It's a coherent story of glacial change,” says Tyler Sutterley at Washington University in Seattle. “Regions that have had glaciers since time immemorial lose these ice icons.”
The glaciers in the Alps have lost more ice than any other region, narrowing almost 40% since 2000. In the Middle East, New Zealand and Western North America, glaciers have also experienced discounts of more than 20%. According to future emissions, the world's glaciers should lose between a quarter and half of their ice by the end of the century.
