Glaciers melting much faster than previously estimated

Norwegian glaciers melting Jostedal warmer wintersMany Norwegian glaciers are melting rapidly. This is from the Birksdal glacier. Photo: Wikimedia.org

Glaciers around the world are melting much faster than previously thought by researchers according to a recent report.

The most comprehensive measurement of glaciers globally has revealed that thousands of glaciers are shrinking 18% faster than an international panel estimated in 2013.

About 369 billion tonnes of snow and ice are lost from the glaciers annually the report states. It was published in the scientific journal, ‘Nature’.

‘’Within 30 years, almost all areas have started to lose mass around the same time. It is quite clearly climate change’’ said report author, Michael Zemp, who also heads the World Glacier Monitoring Service at the University of Zurich.

The glaciers are shrinking faster in, among other places, Central Europe, the Caucasus area, Western Canada and much of the United States. In these areas, over 1% of the mass is lost each year.

“In these areas, given the percentage of mass lost annually, the glaciers will not survive this century” said Zemp.

© NTB Scanpix / #Norway Today