Swiss glaciers shrink by 12%

SWITZERLAND’S glaciers shrank by 12% over the past decade, melting at their fastest rate due to rising temperatures and lighter snowfalls, a study by the Swiss university ETH showed yesterday.

“The last decade was the worst decade that we have had in the last 150 years. We lost a lot of water,” explained Daniel Farinotti, research assistant at the ETH.

“The trend is definitely that glaciers are melting faster now,” he said.

Swiss glaciers have lost 9 cubic km of ice since 1999, the warmest period of the past 150 years, with the most dramatic decline in 2003 when glaciers shrunk by 3.5%.