More than two-thirds of current rapid melting glaciers in the world are related to human activity, according to a new report.
Ben Marzeion, climate scientist at Austria’s University of Innsbruck and co-author of the study, told The Associated Press that since 1991, roughly 69 percent of the quickly increasing melting has been man-made.
{mosads}The study blames climate change spurred by the burning of fossil fuels, changes in land use near glaciers, and pollution.
In Alaska and the Alps, the AP reports, glaciers deal with more human-caused melting than the global average.
The study is the first to calculate how much of the glacial melt can be blamed on people. Scientists involved with the study said the jump from a quarter of melting caused by humans in the early 20th century to 70 percent by the end “is significant and concerning.”