An international group of scientists found out that all over the world glaciers began to melt faster, losing 31 percent more snow and ice per year than 15 years ago. The reason is the change in the climate caused by the combustion of fossil fuels. This is reported in an article published in the journal Nature.
Researchers analyzed satellite data and calculated that from 2015, 220 thousand mountain glaciers lose more than 298 billion tons of snow and ice annually. This volume of water is enough to cover the Switzerland with a water layer with a thickness of 7.2 meters. At the same time, the speed of melting from 2015 to 2019 increased by 71 billion tons per year compared with 2000-2004. Half losses of glacial cover in the world fall on the United States and Canada.
According to scientists, ice melting speed on Alaska is one of the highest in the world: Colombia glacier retreats about 35 meters per year. However, glaciers are melting all over the world, even on Tibet, where they were considered relatively stable. Only in Iceland and Scandinavia there are several glaciers, which increase their mass due to the increased amount of precipitation.
Specialists predict that the reduction of glaciers can become a disaster for millions of people who rely on them as a source of water, and rapid melting can cause deadly breakthroughs of glacial lakes, for example, in India.