Ice is disappearing at an increasing rate across the planet, according to research showing that 28 trillion tons were lost between 1994 and 2017.
Scientists found that the rate of melting accelerated in the 1990s to 0.8 trillion tons per year in 2017.
The total loss during the period is equivalent to a 100 m sheet of ice covering the whole of the United Kingdom.
It contributed up to 3.5 cm to the world’s sea level during the period, increasing the risk of flooding in coastal communities and threatening to wipe out uncertain habitats.
The increase in ice loss was caused by global warming, with more than two-thirds of the total being driven by rising atmospheric temperatures (0.26C per decade since the 1980s) and 32 percent by rising ocean temperatures (0.12C per decade).
According to the study – the first survey of global ice loss using satellite data – there was a 65 percent increase in the rate of ice loss during the 23-year period, mainly driven by the sharp increase in ice sheet losses in Antarctica and Greenland.
“Although every region we studied lost ice, losses from the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets accelerated the most,” said lead author Dr Thomas Slater, a research fellow at Leeds’ Center for Polar Observation and Modeling.
‘The ice sheets are now following the worst climate warming scenarios set out by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Sea level rise on this scale will have very serious consequences for coastal communities this century. ”
The survey covers 215,000 mountain glaciers scattered across the planet, the ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica, the ice sheets floating on Antarctica, and sea ice floating in the North Pole and South Oceans.
The largest losses were from Arctic sea ice (7.6 trillion tons) and Antarctic ice shelf (6.5 trillion tons), both of which float on the polar oceans.
Half of all losses came from ice on land – including 6.1 trillion tonnes of mountain glaciers, 3.8 trillion tonnes from the Greenland ice sheet and 2.5 trillion tonnes from the Antarctic ice sheet. These losses have raised world sea levels by 35 mm, and it is estimated that about 1 million people are at risk of displacing sea level rise for every centimeter.
Dr Isobel Lawrence, a research fellow at Leeds ‘Center for Polar Observation and Modeling, said:’ One of the most important roles of Arctic sea ice is to reflect solar radiation back into space, which helps keep the North Pole cool. As sea ice shrinks, more solar energy is absorbed by the oceans and atmosphere, causing the North Pole to heat up faster than anywhere else on the planet.
“It not only accelerates the melting of sea ice, it also exacerbates the melting of glaciers and ice sheets that raise sea levels.”
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Glaciers contributed to nearly a quarter of global ice loss during the study period, despite the fact that only 1 percent of the earth’s total ice volume was stored.
Ines Otosaka, co-author and PhD researcher of the report, said: “Apart from contributing to global average sea level rise, mountain glaciers are also critical as a freshwater resource for local communities.
“The retreat of glaciers around the world is therefore of great importance on a local as well as global scale.”
The research, led by the University of Leeds with the assistance of the University of Edinburgh, University College London and specialists in computer science, Earthwave, is funded by the UK Natural Environment Research Council and is published in the journal European Geosciences Union. The Cryosphere. A preview of the research was published last August.
