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, 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.

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