The glaciers are melting due to an increasingly warmer climate, which means that sea levels are rising and enormous reservoirs of frozen freshwater are disappearing, according to researchers at, among others, a university in Zurich, Switzerland, who led the research project.
Among the results is statistics showing that around 36 per cent more ice melted during the period 2012-2023 than during the period 2001-2011.
Around 273 million tons of ice melt annually - which corresponds to the water consumption of the entire world population over 30 years. However, the regional differences are significant, where glaciers in the Alps are melting to a large extent compared to glaciers, for example, at the South Pole.
The study also confirms fears that the glaciers are melting faster than previous calculations by the UN's climate experts within the IPCC.
The result is "alarming" according to Professor Emeritus Michael Zemp, who is a co-author of the report, published in the esteemed scientific journal Nature. The study was conducted in collaboration with the World Glacier Monitoring Service, the University of Edinburgh, and the organization Earthwave.
