Glaciers are receding all over the world, at a rate of three Olympic swimming pools per second

https://www.lemonde.fr/en/environment/article/2025/02/19/glaciers-are-receding-all-over-the-world-at-a-rate-of-three-olympic-swimming-pools-per-second_6738335_114.html

by LeMonde_en

3 comments

  1. Glaciers all over the world are cracking, breaking up and melting. As a result of global warming, the climate sentinels lost 6,500 billion tonnes of ice between 2000 and 2023, the equivalent of three Olympic swimming pools every second. The Alps and the Pyrénées are among the most affected areas, with around 40% of their glacial volume having disappeared in 20 years. This loss is exacerbating the rise in sea levels. These are the conclusions of a study published in [*Nature*](https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-024-08545-z)*, on* Wednesday, February 19. This analysis, carried out by nearly 60 international scientists, is the most comprehensive on the subject of the upheavals affecting these white giants and is published during the International Year of Glacier Preservation.

    The rate of mass loss is accelerating. It increased by 36% between the first and second half of the records, from 231 billion tonnes per year over the period 2000-2011 to 314 billion over the period 2012-2023. The last four years have set records, with the disappearance of more than 400 billion metric tons per year, including 548 billion in 2023. Global data for 2024 is not yet available. “Glaciers are very sensitive to rising temperatures, and 2023 ranks as the second-warmest year [after 2024],” said Fanny Brun, glaciologist at the Institute of Environmental Geosciences and one of the authors of the study.

    The meltdown concerns all the planet’s glaciers, which lost 5% of their mass between 2000 and 2023. But this global average masks major disparities. The least glaciated regions at temperate latitudes are the main victims of warming. In addition to the Alps and Pyrénées, glaciers in the Caucasus and Middle East have lost 35% of their mass, and those in New Zealand 29%, followed by northern Asia and western Canada and the US (23%). “In just two years, 2022 and 2023, the Alps and Pyrénées have lost 10% of their volume, which is huge,” said Etienne Berthier, a glaciologist at the National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) and one of the study’s authors, who pointed to repeated heatwaves and winter droughts. In absolute value, however, the greatest ice loss has occurred in the largest regions – Alaska, the Canadian Arctic and the peripheral glaciers of Greenland.

    **Read the full article here:** [**https://www.lemonde.fr/en/environment/article/2025/02/19/glaciers-are-receding-all-over-the-world-at-a-rate-of-three-olympic-swimming-pools-per-second_6738335_114.html**](https://www.lemonde.fr/en/environment/article/2025/02/19/glaciers-are-receding-all-over-the-world-at-a-rate-of-three-olympic-swimming-pools-per-second_6738335_114.html)

  2. You see, it’s not that politicians believe global warming doesn’t exist, it’s that it’s already too late and having us argue whether it’s real or not distracts us from the fact we are slowly dying rather than all of us going into a frenzy of utter panic.

  3. If they say 3 then the real number is probably 6 or more

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