Greenland’s glaciers are melting faster than 20 years ago: The melting rate of Greenland’s glaciers — which hold enough water to raise sea levels by at least 6 meters if they melt — have accelerated fivefold over the last 20 years, Reuters reported, citing a recent study by researchers at the University of Copenhagen. Glaciers are retreating annually by 25 meters on average, compared with the 5-6 meters recorded around two decades ago, the study found. The scientists used satellite imagery and hundreds of thousands of archive photography to track and analyze the development of 1k glaciers over a 130-year period.

Glacier loss signals ice sheets will soon follow: “If we start to see glaciers losing mass several times faster than in the last century, it can make us expect that the ice sheet will follow the same path just on a slower and longer time scale,” senior researcher at the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland William Colgan said, according to the newswire. The world’s two main ice sheets are in Greenland — which has an ice sheet about three times the size of Texas — and Antarctica contributed 17.3% of the sea level rise between 2006 and 2018, according to Reuters.

France is paying attention: Amid the rapidly rising concern over the world’s melting ice caps and glaciers, France has pledged to spend EUR 1 bn on polar research by 2030, The Guardian reports. As part of the initiative, France is calling for a moratorium on the exploitation of the seabed in polar regions, to which the UK, Canada, Brazil and 19 other countries have agreed. The announcement came during a high-level meeting called by French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris, bringing together high-level officials from countries with polar territory or glaciers, and leading scientists.

REMEMBER- The impact of melting glaciers is not to be underestimated: Many studies around the world have pointed to an unprecedented rapid decline in glaciers, including Indonesia, Switzerland, China, Nepal, and Bhutan. Their impacts have included endangerment of species, loss of freshwater resources, floods, a further rise in global temperatures, and an increased eating away at coastal cities. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres visited Nepal’s Everest region last month to highlight the urgency of the melting glaciers. Alexandria in Egypt and Basra in Iraq are amongst the cities primed to bear the brunt of climate-induced sea level shifts.