The global glacier melting has accelerated in the last decade, a unique study on Wednesday reveals on Wednesday, according to which this phenomenon, which fuels an irreversible elevation of the level of the seas, could be faster than expected in the future.
The glaciers, which constitute significant climatic regulators and provide fresh water to billions of people, melt quickly as global temperatures increase under the effect of human activity.
In an unprecedented assessment, an international team noted a strong increase in melting, with approximately 36% additional ice lost between 2012 and 2023 that between 2000 and 2011.
On average, some 273 billion tonnes of ice are lost each year, the equivalent of the world’s water consumption for 30 years.
The results are “shocking” without being completely surprising given the global warming in progress, said Michael Zemp of the University of Zurich, co -author of the study published in Nature.
The glaciers of the world have lost around 5% of their volume since the beginning of the century, with large regional disparities: -2% in Antarctica at -40% in the Alps.
The regions with smaller glaciers lose them at a faster pace, and many “will not survive in the current century”, according to Michael Zemp.
The works – coordinated by the Global Glacier Surveillance Service (WGMS), the University of Edinburgh and the Earthwave Research Group – has gathered field measures and by satellites to establish a “comparison point”.
According to Michael Zemp, who directs WGMS, the study suggests that glaciers decrease at a faster pace than expected in the latest IPCC report, climate experts mandated by the UN.
“We are therefore faced with a higher elevation of sea level than expected until the end of the century,” he told AFP.
The melting will also affect the supply of fresh water, in particular in Central Asia and in the central Andes.
Glaciers are the second contributor to the rise in ocean level, after the expansion of seawater under the effect of warming.
The nearly two centimeters of sea level elevation allocated to the melting of glaciers since 2000 mean that almost four million additional people on the coasts of the world are vulnerable to floods, have calculated scientists.
In the 20th century, assessments were based on field measures of some 500 glaciers; Today, satellites, cameras, radars and lasers provide more complete and precise data, on 275,000 glaciers.
