Are glaciers growing or shrinking?

Negative values indicate shrinkage. We see that there are isolated glaciers that are growing. However, focusing solely on these few glaciers to indicate global glacier growth paints a very misleading picture. The vast majority of glaciers are receding. read more

Figure 1: Long-term changes in glacier volume adapted from Cogley 2009. Figure 2: Percentage of shrinking and growing glaciers in 2008–2009, from the 2011 WGMS report. It is also very important to understand that glacier changes are not only dictated by air temperature changes but also by precipitation. read more

The important thing is that the total mass of ice in glaciers and sea ice is shrinking, unambiguously, everywhere they exist. However, in some places in Antarctica, ice is spreading further out but it is thinning out even more than it is spreading, so the total mass is decreasing. read more

Scientists concluded in the Journal of Glaciology that the loss of glacier mass in Antarctica’s western region is being offset by thickening of glaciers on the continent’s eastern interior, which has experienced increased snowfall. read more