Himalayan glacier melting has doubled in the last two decades

Scientists have found that melting in the Himalayan glaciers has doubled since the year 2000.

Columbia University researchers found that the glacier surfaces shrank 22 cm, or 8.6 inches, a year from 1975 to 2000. Between 2000 and 2016, the glaciers shrank 43 cm, or almost 17 inches, The Guardian reported.

Using declassified US spy satellite images with new satellite data, researchers at Columbia’s Lamont-Doherty Earth observatory found that more than a quarter of all the ice from the glaciers has been lost over the last four decades, according to research released Wednesday. Eight billion tons of ice are being lost every year without being replaced by snow in the Himalayas, according to the report.{mosads}

The excess water will flow into India, Pakistan, China and other countries, according to The Guardian.

“This is the clearest picture yet of how fast Himalayan glaciers are melting since 1975, and why,” Joshua Maurer, who led the new research, told The Guardian.

Joerg Schaefer, part of the research team, said the new results point to the “worst possible” scenario for global “wellbeing,” saying the changes are undoubtably being driven by human action.

“It looks devastating and there is no doubt in my mind, not a single grain of doubt, that [the impact of the climate crisis] is what we are seeing,” Schaefer told The Guardian. 

“To stop the temperature rises, we have to cool the planet,” Schaefer continued. “We have to not only slow down greenhouse gas emissions, we have to reverse them. That is the challenge for the next 20 years.”