Earth Has Lost 28 Trillion Tonnes of Ice Due To Global Warming in Just 23 Years

Recently, a scientific observation reveals that glaciers, mountains, and ice sheets between 1994 and 2017 highly impact as global warming occurs. This analysis was performed and published in the journal “Cryosphere Discussions” by some scientists from Leeds and Edinburgh universities and University College London.

Icebergs melting in the sea in Antarctic Greenland (Credit: David Merron/gettyimages)

According to them, this huge ice loss is "staggering”. They found that this melting glacier and ice sheets could cause sea levels to rise drastically and probably increasing a meter (3 feet) by the end of the century. Professor Andy Shepherd, director of Leeds University's Centre for Polar Observation and Modelling, told The Guardian.

"To put that in context, every centimetre of sea-level rise means about a million people will be displaced from their low-lying homelands,"

This massive loss of ice could have other harsh consequences, including extreme disruption to the biological health of Antarctic and Arctic Ocean waters and simultaneously decreasing the planet's capability to reflect incoming solar radiation back to space.

Dramatic skies and pack ice in the arctic water of Svalbard (Credit: MB Photography/gettyimages)

According to this study, in the huge loss of 28 trillion ice, 7.6 trillion tonnes from the Arctic ocean, 6.5 trillion tonnes from Antarctic ice shelves, 6.2 trillion tonnes of mountain glaciers, 3.8 trillion tonnes of Greenland ice sheet, 2.5 trillion tonnes of Antarctic ice sheet and 0.9 trillion tonnes of mountain glaciers have reduced in their masses (Republic World). It also added,

“Just over half (60 %) of the ice loss was from the northern hemisphere, and the remainder (40 %) was from the southern hemisphere. The rate of ice loss has risen by 57 % since the 1990s – from 0.8 to 1.2 trillion tonnes per year.”

The Greenland ice layer is the world's second-largest iceberg. According to the researchers, In Greenland, snowfall that replaces the country's glaciers every year can no longer recover with this rate of ice melt, which indicates that the Greenland ice sheet will continue to lose ice even if global temperatures stop rising.

Michalea King, a lead scientist and author at Byrd Polar and Climate Research Centre (Ohio State University), stated in a press release. 

"What we've found is that the ice that's discharging into the ocean is far surpassing the snow that's accumulating on the surface of the ice sheet".

References: Science Alert, Republic World, The Guardian