World’s glaciers melting at a faster rate than ever before

French scientists, who have studied nearly all glaciers on the planet, have found that they are melting at an accelerated rate and are likely to contribute to 1/5 of global sea level rise.

In the past twenty years glaciers have lost on average 267 gigatonnes per year. This amount is concerning as it is also increasing by 48 gigatonnes each decade.

The glaciers studied do vary in size, with some glaciers being equivalent in size to a football pitch whilst some are as large as the UK. What they have in common, however, are the causes of their accelerating rate of melting. Increased recession of the glaciers due to warmer atmospheric temperatures, causing melting at the snout, was observed in combination with changes in precipitation patterns with some glaciers receiving significantly less snowfall.

Billions of people rely on meltwater from glaciers for their water supplies so, as well as the concern over associated sea level rise, the rate of melting of glaciers worldwide could cause issues for many in-land communities too.

For more on this study, check out this BBC article