Earth's ice loss increases at record speed.
                     Earth's Ice Loss 
increases at 
record speed.
• Earth has lost 28 trillion tonnes of ice between 1994 and 2017, according 
INTRODUCTION to a study which reveals that the rate at which ice is disappearing across 
the planet is speeding up.
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• The research, published in The Cryosphere journal, found that the rate of 
RESEARCH ice loss from the Earth has increased markedly within the past three decades, from 0.8 trillion tonnes per year in the 1990s to 1.3 trillion 
tonnes per year by 2017.
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GLOBAL ICE • The team, led by researchers at the University of Leeds in the UK, is the 
LOSS first to carry out a survey of global ice loss using satellite data.
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RISK OF • The researchers noted that ice melt across the globe raises sea levels, 
increases the risk of flooding to coastal communities, and threatens to 
FLOODING wipe out natural habitats which the wildlife depends on.
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INCREASE IN 
THE RATE OF • The study shows that overall, there has been a 65 per cent increase in the rate of ice loss over the 23-year survey.
ICE LOSS 
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LOSSES FROM 
THE POLAR ICE • This has been mainly driven by steep rise in losses from the polar ice sheets in Antarctica and Greenland.
SHEETS
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RESEARCH • "Although every region we studied lost ice, losses from the Antarctic and 
Greenland ice sheets have accelerated the most," said lead author 
OPINION Thomas Slater, a Research Fellow at Leeds University.
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CLIMATE • The ice sheets are now following the worst-case climate warming 
CHANGE scenarios set out by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
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IMPACTS ON 
COASTAL • Sea-level rise on this scale will have very serious impacts on coastal communities this century.
COMMUNITIES
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GLOBAL • The researchers noted that the increase in ice loss has been triggered by 
warming of the atmosphere and oceans, which have warmed by 0.26 and 
WARMING 0.12 degrees Celsius per decade since the 1980, respectively.
Source: www.newindianexpress.com