Annual ice loss compared with London, UK, illustration

Illustration of annual global ice loss shown for scale against the skyline of London, UK. As the climate warms Earth is permanently losing more than a trillion tonnes of ice each year, enough for an ice cube 10 kilometres high. From a total of 1,196 gigatonnes (Gt) of ice lost each year, 266 Gt is from glaciers, 277 Gt is from the ice sheets covering Greenland and Antarctica, 284 Gt is from floating ice shelves, mainly around Antarctica, and 369 Gt is from the sea ice covering parts of the Arctic Ocean and the Southern Ocean that surrounds Antarctica. The rate of loss is increasing. Ice lost from glaciers, ice sheets and frozen land contributes to sea level rise. The loss of floating ice changes the reflectance of Earth s surface, the salinity of the oceans, and the flow of heat from ocean to atmosphere. This affects atmospheric flows such as the jet stream, increasing the frequency and severity of extreme weather. Data from ESA-CCI., Photo by PLANETARY VISIONS LTD/ESA/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY