A new study expanded the universe of glaciers investigated. Usually only 500 glaciers are looked at, this one looked at 19,000. It looks like glaciers are melting faster than scientists thought, causing 25 to 30 percent of global sea level rise. The shrinkage rate for glaciers today is 18 percent faster than that calculated by another international study in 2013.
Between 1961 and 2016, the world's non-polar glaciers had lost around 9,000 billion tons of ice and contributed 27 millimeters to rising ocean levels. That's enough ice to turn the U.S. into an ice-rink four feet thick. Today, glaciers lose about 335 billion tons of ice a year, the equivalent of one millimeter per year of sea level rise.
We have to worry the most as the study found that glaciers in Canada, the U.S., New Zealand and Europe could melt completely by 2100.
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