(August 3, 2015) Glacier
decline in the first decade of the 21st century has reached a historical
record, since the onset of direct observations. Glacier melt is a global
phenomenon and will continue even without further climate change. This is shown
in the latest study by the World Glacier Monitoring Service under the lead of
the University of Zurich, Switzerland.
The World Glacier Monitoring Service, domiciled at the
University of Zurich, has compiled worldwide data on glacier changes for more
than 120 years. Together with its National Correspondents in more than 30
countries, the international service just published a new comprehensive
analysis of global glacier changes in the Journal of Glaciology. In this study,
observations of the first decade of the 21st century (2001-2010) were compared
to all available earlier data from in-situ, air-borne, and satellite-borne
observations as well as to reconstructions from pictorial and written sources.
«The observed glaciers currently lose between half a metre
and one metre of its ice thickness every year – this is two to three times more
than the corresponding average of the 20th century», explains Michael Zemp,
Director of the World Glacier Monitoring Service and lead author of the study.
«Exact measurements of this ice loss are reported from a few hundred glaciers
only. However, these results are qualitatively confirmed from field and
satellite-based observations for tens of thousands of glaciers around the
world.»