Planet Earth has lost 28 trillion tonnes of ice in just 23 years, scientists have found.
With the planet's temperature increasing and greenhouse gas emissions continuing to be released, the world has experienced rising sea levels and hotter temperatures.
But UK scientists made the terrifying discovery, saying that the shocking levels of ice loss are a 'direct consequence' of climate warming.
And 28 trillion tonnes of ice obviously sounds a lot - but what does that actually look like? Well, the authors of the study say that it is enough to cover the entire surface of the UK with a 100-metre-thick layer of ice.
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Researchers from Leeds and Edinburgh universities, as well as University College London studied satellite images of the poles, glaciers and mountains taken between 1994 and 2017. They analysed them to find out just how much of it remained.
Speaking to The Guardian, Professor Andy Shepherd, director of Leeds University's Centre for Polar Observation and Modelling, said: "In the past researchers have studied individual areas - such as the Antarctic or Greenland - where ice is melting. But this is the first time anyone has looked at all the ice that is disappearing from the entire planet. What we have found has stunned us."
Things aren't looking great for the future if something drastic isn't put it into place. With ice sheets and glaciers around the world melting, it's estimated that the sea level could rise by a metre by the end of the century.
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Shepherd added: "To put that in context, every centimetre of sea level rise means about a million people will be displaced from their low-lying homelands."
Because of the level of melting, the planet's capability to reflect solar radiation back into space is losing momentum. This is because darker ice, which is exposed when ice melts, absorbs even more heat. Add greenhouse gas emissions and the situation is ripe for even greater climate change.
Tom Slater, also from Leeds University, added: "To put the losses we've already experienced into context, 28 trillion tonnes of ice would cover the entire surface of the UK with a sheet of frozen water that is 100 metres thick. It's just mind-blowing."
But it's not just the rising sea levels that are the result. When glaciers melt, they pour fresh water into the sea water of the poles, meaning the biological health of the area is going to be affected.
Melting glaciers pouring fresh water into Arctic and Antarctic waters also pose a risk to the area's biological health, with the disappearance of mountain range ice wiping out local communities' sources of fresh water.
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Scientists also researched the ice loss of Greenland, which lost one million tonnes of ice every single minute of 2019. Researchers have urged, yet again, that we need to reduce CO2 emissions.
Featured Image Credit: PATopics: World News