LONDON, Feb. 20 (Xinhua) -- The world's glaciers have been melting faster than ever, causing almost 2 cm of sea level rise since the turn of the century as temperatures have risen due to human activities, a new study revealed.

Glaciers are excellent indicators of ongoing anthropogenic climate change. The latest research, published in the journal Nature, through an international effort involving 35 research teams, shows the world's glaciers collectively lost about 6.542 trillion tonnes of ice between 2000 and 2023, causing an 18 mm rise in global sea levels.

The comprehensive scientific analysis is part of the Glacier Mass Balance Intercomparison Exercise, known as Glambie. It combines and analyses data available from field measurements as well as optical, radar and laser satellite missions.

The assessment excluded the continental sheets of the Antarctic and Greenland, but concluded that so far this century, glaciers in the rest of the world had lost approximately 5 percent of their total volume.

The world's glaciers lose an average of 273 billion tonnes of ice every year, the equivalent of 30 years of water consumption by the world's population.

Regional losses were highly variable. The research has found that the Antarctic and sub-Antarctic islands had lost 2 percent of their volume but glaciers in the Alps and Pyrenees had lost 39 percent of their volume in less than a quarter of a century.

Glaciers lost record mass in 2022 and 2023 when global warming worsened, the researchers said. The melting of glaciers is linked to increased risk of sea level rise, flooding and drought. Enditem

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