Dear MEL Topic Readers,
World's glaciers melting faster than ever recorded
A glacier is a mass of ice that is constantly moving downhill. The estimated volume of glaciers, not including the ice sheets of Antarctica and Greenland is around 170,000 km3. Glaciers’ ice is the largest freshwater reservoir, accounting for nearly 70% of the world’s freshwater. Hundreds of millions of people are relying on seasonal meltwater from glaciers to some extent. However, glaciers melt faster as the climate warms. Global sea levels have risen about 20 centimeters on average since 1900, and the rate of increase has been accelerating in recent decades, nearly 30% of which is estimated to have been contributed by melting glaciers. If all the 200,000 or so glaciers melted, we would lose the precious freshwater reservoirs while facing accelerated sea level rise. Also, if that happened, ice sheets in polar regions would have melted. Combined, the global sea level would rise by approximately 70 meters. Recent studies found that glaciers outside the polar regions have lost 270 billion tonnes of ice a year between 2000 and 2023, enough mass to supply three liters of fresh water to everyone on Earth every day. And they are melting faster and faster.
Read the article and learn what melting glaciers mean to us and the planet.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy4ly8vde85o
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