Earth's glaciers lost 300 billion tons (273 billion metric tons) of ice every year on average between 2000 and 2023, amounting to a 5% decline in volume since the start of the millennium, a groundbreaking new study finds.
The loss equates to roughly three Olympic swimming pools' worth of ice melting or breaking off from glaciers every second, according to the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS), which was involved in the study together with dozens of other research institutions.
