[Asia Economy Reporter Kwon Jae-hee] A study has found that the rate at which glaciers are melting due to global warming has accelerated by about 57% compared to 30 years ago.
On the 25th (local time), according to major foreign media, a research team including the University of Leeds in the UK revealed in a paper published in the European Geosciences Union (EGU) journal "The Cryosphere" that an estimated 28 trillion tons of glaciers disappeared between 1994 and 2017.
The 28 trillion tons of glaciers is an amount that could cover the entire UK or the state of Michigan in the United States to a depth of 100 meters.
The research team explained that based on calculations using satellite data, in-situ measurements, and computer simulations, about 80 million tons of glaciers disappeared annually in the 1990s, but recently about 1.2 trillion tons of glaciers have been melting each year.
In particular, as land glaciers melt, water equivalent to an amount that can raise global sea levels by 3.5 cm has flowed into the oceans, and the meltwater from high mountain glaciers, which account for only 1% of land glaciers, reached 22% of the total annual meltwater, indicating a serious situation.
Sea ice in the Arctic also decreased to its lowest level for the summer season.
Last year, Arctic sea ice was the second lowest in the past 40 years observed by satellites.
Professor Thomas Slater, a glaciologist at the University of Leeds and a lead author of this study, warned, "It is astonishing that so much glacier has disappeared in just 30 years," adding, "Although glaciers are far away, everyone will feel their impact."
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