Climate Change: Over 12,000 Billion Tons of Ice Lost

Climate change is causing accelerated melting of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, with approximately 12,500 billion tons of ice lost since 1979, according to a study published in _Scientific Data_. Inès Otosaka, a glaciologist at Northumbria University, emphasizes that the mass loss of ice sheets is intensifying, primarily due to ocean heat. This volume of ice could cover the entire continental United States with a five-foot layer.