Ice, Ice, Baby!

A study, using historical NASA satellite data and new statistical methods, accurately assessed melting of the world's glaciers over the last 20 years (https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/apr/28/speed-at-which-worlds-glaciers-are-melting-has-doubled-in-20-years). The study found that, between 2000 and 2019, the Earth's glaciers lost a combined 267 gigatonnes of ice per year. The volume of water thus generated, accounted for 21% of the subsequent rise in sea level. This rise was almost 50% higher than the contribution made by the melting of the Greenland icesheet. It was double that added by the Antarctic icesheet. In fact, only thermal expansion of water, produced a bigger rise in sea level. If you heat water up, it expands. The speed at which the glaciers melted almost doubled over the 20 years of the study. Rates of melting, however, varied between different geographical locations (the most extreme changes were seen in Alaska). Glacial melt is, of course, a direct consequence of human-driven global heating. Losses of the glaciers, will have powerful impacts on human (and other) populations in many parts of the planet.