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Glaciers in the Himalayas are melting at twice the rate they used to, according to a new study published in the journal Science Advances. Why? In short: Climate change.
A team of scientists used satellite images taken across four decades (including during the Cold War, from spy satellites) to make the comparison. In layman’s terms, scientists converted the satellite images into 3D images and used those to compare the thickness of ice in different (650, in total) regions.
The study encompasses a wide area, from India, China, Nepal, and Bhutan, and even includes Mount Everest. Unfortunately, the wide area has a consistent bad result: Lots and lots of loss. There’s been a loss of 8.3 billion tons of ice per year since 2000. In the years between 1975 and 2000, the average was 4.3 billion tons. To put this another way, according to researchers, less than three-quarters of the ice that existed back in 1975 still exists today.