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From EcoWatch
Study Highlights
- 🌍 Accelerated Glacier Loss: Glaciers lost about 273 gigatonnes of mass annually from 2000 to 2023, with a significant increase in the loss rate.
- 📈 Climate Change Indicator: Glacier melting is a clear indicator of ongoing anthropogenic climate change, impacting local geohazards and ecosystems.
- 🌊 Contribution to Sea Level Rise: Glacier mass loss contributes approximately 18 mm to global sea level rise, highlighting the urgency of climate action.
- 🌿 Ecosystem Impact: Glacier retreat affects both marine and terrestrial ecosystems, leading to the emergence of new habitats.
- ❄️ Data Homogenization: The GlaMBIE initiative provides a comprehensive, homogenized dataset that improves the understanding of glacier mass changes.
- 🔍 Methodological Diversity: Different observation methods (glaciological measurements, DEM differencing, altimetry, and gravimetry) were assessed for their effectiveness in capturing glacier dynamics.
- 📊 Future Projections: The results serve as a critical baseline for future modeling efforts, addressing uncertainties in projections related to glacier mass loss.
Community estimate of global glacier mass changes from 2000 to 2023 – Nature
An intercomparison exercise reassesses mass loss from glaciers worldwide based on the main in situ and satellite methods from 2000 to 2023; the results are consistent with previous assessments and provide a refined and comprehensive observational baseline for future impact and modelling studies.
Accelerating glacial melting is causing the world’s oceans to rise year after year and is causing a loss of regional freshwater, new research led by scientists at the University of Zürich shows.
The world’s glaciers have been losing 273 billion tonnes of ice mass annually, causing oceans to rise by nearly a millimeter per year, which has been accelerating in recent years, the study finds.
“To put this in perspective, the 273 billion tonnes of ice lost in one single year amounts to what the entire global population consumes in 30 years, assuming three litres per person and day,” lead author Michael Zemp said in a press release.
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