Glaciers worldwide are melting fast, driving sea level rise and threatening freshwater supplies. Researchers found that from 2000 to 2023, smaller glaciers (excluding Antarctica & Greenland) lost 5% of their volume—273 billion tonnes of ice.
🔗 https://t.co/q5Y1xE5Twz pic.twitter.com/CqfM3h6sFX
— TU Delft (@tudelft) February 21, 2025
Climate change is accelerating the melting of the world’s mountain glaciers, with new research revealing they are shrinking more than twice as fast as in the early 2000s. The world’s glaciers lost ice at a rate of about 255 billion tons annually from 2000 to 2011, but this quickened to about 346 billion tons annually over the next decade, according to a massive study. The last few years have seen even faster melting, with a record 604 billion tons lost in 2023.
The study drew on an international effort, including 233 estimates of changes in glacier weight. Overall, the world’s glaciers have lost more than 7 trillion tons of ice since 2000.
World's glaciers melt faster than ever before. One can argue if it’s wholly or partially caused by humans; but one cannot deny its happening & its devastating consequences. Why then would humanity not take every action possible to reverse temperature rise https://t.co/hznABzlbqR
— Dr. Andy Palmer (@AndyatAuto) February 20, 2025
“The thing that people should be aware of and perhaps worried about is that yes, the glaciers are indeed retreating and disappearing as we said they would.
Climate change consequences : world’s glaciers lost ice at the rate of about 255 billion tons (231 billion metric tons) annual from 2000 to 2011, but that quickened to about 346 billion tons (314 billion metric tons) annually over about the next decadehttps://t.co/X34LlzzvMw
— Daniel P. Aldrich urbanists.social/web/@dpaldrich (@DanielPAldrich) February 21, 2025
The rate of that loss seems to be accelerating,” said William Colgan, a glaciologist for the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland and one of about 60 authors of the study. In the past 24 years, Central Europe’s glaciers have seen the highest percentage of ice loss, now 39% smaller than they were in 2000. Colgan expressed particular concern over the Alps due to their rapid shrinkage.
Glacier melt impacts sea levels
“Elevated summer temperatures have been particularly detrimental,” he noted.
Alaska’s glaciers are shrinking fastest, and Central Europe has lost 39% of its ice.
Glaciers have lost 7 trillion tons of ice since 2000, adding 2 cm to sea levels, @borenbears reports for @AP, citing @Nature. 🌊https://t.co/dMhb7BRsW7
— SEI Climate (@SEIclimate) February 22, 2025
“Glaciers are apolitical and unbiased, and their decline paints a clear picture of accelerated warming,” said Gwenn Flowers, a professor of Earth Sciences at Simon Fraser University in Canada, who was not part of the study.
University of Colorado ice scientist Ted Scambos, also not involved in the study, emphasized that the current glacier shrinkage is distinctly attributable to climate change: “It’s due to greenhouse gas increases caused directly by coal, oil, and natural gas burning. No amount of rhetoric, tweeting, or proclamation will change that.”
Melting glaciers contribute more to sea level rise than ice loss from either Greenland or Antarctica. Only the expansion of water as it warms plays a bigger role in sea level rise.
The study’s comprehensive data suggests that predictions for future glacier loss may need to be revised to account for better information and worsening climate conditions. Colgan warned that regions currently benefiting from extra water due to fast-melting glaciers will soon face challenges as these glaciers reach a point of no return. “If you’re losing 5.5% of the global ice volume in just over 20 years, clearly that’s not sustainable,” he said.
“That’s going to catch up with you.”
He added that the 600 billion tons of glacier loss in 2023 “sounds incredible now, but it might sound pretty normal in 10 years from now. Mountain glaciers as a whole can flip into collective ice loss pretty darn quick.”
Image Credits: Photo by Wolf Schram on Unsplash
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