When one thinks about the damage it is causing to the planet h climate changeit is possible that what comes to his mind is the image of huge lumps of ice in the Arcticdetach and fall into the ocean.

Greenland and Antarctica are losing ice masses as expected but it is difficult to estimate how much ice they are shedding.

Thanks to ESA’s CryoSat satellite and an innovative way of using its data, scientists have discovered that glaciers around the world have shrunk by a total of 2% in just 10 years, and this is due to warmer air temperatures.

A paper, published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, describes how scientists used a specific CryoSat data processing technique to reveal that glaciers lost 2720 Gigatonnes of ice between 2010 and 2020.

Their research also shows that warmer air temperatures are responsible for 89% of this ice loss.

Glaciers are found on all continents except Australia.

They provide an essential source of fresh water. For example, the glaciers in high Asia alone provide water for over 1.3 billion people.

Glaciers are also important for industries such as hydroelectric power.

Collapsing glaciers around the world are therefore expected to cause serious problems for local populations and those dependent on runoff water downstream.

In addition, ice lost from glaciers contributes more to sea level rise than ice lost from any of the giant ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica.