Global ice loss speeding up: study

Ice is disappearing across the planet at an increasing rate, according to research which shows 28 trillion tonnes was lost between 1994 and 2017.

Scientists found that the rate of melting had accelerated from 0.8 trillion tons per year in the 1990s to 1.3 trillion tonnes by 2017.

The total lost over that period is the equivalent of a sheet of ice 100m thick covering the whole of the UK.

It has contributed as much as 3.5cm to global sea levels during that time, increasing the risk of flooding in coastal communities and threatening to wipe out precarious habitats.

The increase in ice loss has been triggered by global warming, with more than two-thirds of the total driven by rising atmospheric temperatures (0.26C per decade since the 1980s) and 32 percent by rising ocean temperatures (0.12C per decade).