Geneva, 21 March 2025 (dpa/MIA) - The dramatic shrinkage of glaciers will have a significant impact on life on Earth, experts said on Friday.

The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) highlighted the threat to vital fresh water supplies, which millions of people depend on for drinking, agriculture and industry.

The warning comes as the first World Day for Glaciers is marked on Friday.

In the 48 years since 1976, glaciers worldwide have lost nearly 9,200 gigatons of ice, according to the World Glacier Monitoring Service (WGMS) at the University of Zurich. A gigaton is a billion tons.

This loss is equivalent to a 25-metre-thick block of ice the size of Germany, WGMS director Michael Zemp said.

The WMO also reported that melting glaciers have raised sea levels by 18 millimetres since 2000.

Zemp said that for every millimetre of sea-level rise, an additional 200,000 to 300,000 people face an increased risk of flooding.

Glaciers, along with the ice sheets of Antarctica and Greenland, hold 70% of the world's fresh water resources, according to the WMO.

"Preservation of glaciers is a not just an environmental, economic and societal necessity. It's a matter of survival," said WMO Secretary General Celeste Saulo.

While the shrinkage of glaciers was once limited to certain regions, the WMO noted that all 19 glacier regions worldwide have experienced ice loss in the last three years.

Glaciers have shrunk more during this period than in any other three-year span since records began in the 1970s.

Photo: WGMS