Since 2000, the world’s glaciers have shrunk more than 5 percent.

According to the most comprehensive evaluation ever, glaciers around the world have reduced average over 5 percent since 2000. This rapid rate of melting in the last decade has increased by more than one third as climate change continues.

“Any degree of warming matters for glaciers,” says Noel Garamlen At the University of Edinburgh, in Britain. “They are a barometer for climate change.”

The new number comes from a global association of hundreds of researchers, called the Glacier Mass Balance Intercopeperison Exercise. The group aiming to reduce uncertainty is how much the planet’s 200,000 or so many glaciers have melted using a standard procedure to assess various measures of their changes in size. This includes 20 satellites as well as ground-based measurements from gravity and height measurements.

Between 2000 and 2011, the glaciers were melting at the rate of about 231 billion tonnes per year at a rate of about 231 billion per year. This melted rate increased between 2012 and 2023 to 314 billion tonnes per year, acceleration of more than one third. In 2023, a record loss of a mass of about 548 billion tonnes was damaged.

These numbers correspond to previous estimates. But this broader form “provides a little more confidence about the change we see on glaciers”, says Gaurmalain, which is part of the consortium. “And there is a clear acceleration.”

Overall, about 7 trillion tons of glacial snow scrapping since 2000 has increased the sea level to about 2 cm, which is the second largest contributor ever to increase sea level, which is the second largest contributor to the sea level. The reason is behind the expansion of water.

“This is a consistent story of glacial change,” says Tyler Sutterle At the University of Washington at Seattle. “In areas that had glaciers, they are losing these ice icons from time to time.”

In the Alps, the glaciers have lost more ice than any other area, with about 40 percent shrinks since 2000. In the Middle East, New Zealand and western North America, glaciers have also seen a decrease of more than 20 percent. Depending on future emissions, the glaciers of the world are expected to lose between a quarter and half of the ice by the end of the century.