NZ’s glaciers have already lost nearly a third of their ice – as more vanishes, landscapes and lives change

Brewster Glacier is thinning and retreating because of extremely low retention of winter snow and high summer melt rates. Lauren Vargo/Victoria University of Wellington, CC BY

New Zealand ranks third globally in the proportion of ice lost from glaciers. Almost 30% of ice volume has melted during the past 24 years and what remains is disappearing at an accelerating pace, according to a recent global assessment.

Almost 300 glaciers have now vanished completely from New Zealand’s mountains.