The most comprehensive measurement of glaciers worldwide found that thousands of inland masses of snow compressed into ice are shrinking 18% faster than an international panel of scientists calculated in 2013. The world's glaciers are shrinking five times faster now than they were in the 1960s. Their melt is accelerating due to global warming, and adding more water to already rising seas, the study found. The glaciers shrinking fastest are in central Europe, the Caucasus region, western Canada, the US Lower 48 states, New Zealand and near the tropics. Zemp said warmer summer temperatures are the main reason glaciers are shrinking faster.

Source: Otago Daily Times April 08, 2019 22:52 UTC