From 6.7 inches to 2.9 feet in 40 years

Climate.gov provides an interesting set of figures.

In State of the Climate in 2019, glacier expert Mauri Pelto reported that the pace of glacier loss has accelerated from -171 millimeters (6.7 inches) per year in the 1980s, to -460 millimeters (11 inches) per year in the 1990s, to -500 millimeters (1.6 feet) per year in the 2000s, to -889 millimeters (2.9 feet) per year for the 2000s.

That’s a huge increase in a short space of time. It’s kind of terrifying.

Over the same period of course the global population has increased hugely. Humans go up up up and the stored water they require for survival goes down down down. More humans depend on that stored water, and more humans are why that stored water is melting away.

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