Scientists hope that new website will make global numbers such as glacier melt or area lost less abstract
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Scientists have launched a new interactive website – available to use here – that lets users explore the projected future of individual glaciers around the world.
By zooming in on different regions of the world map, users can see whether and approximately when a glacier is projected to disappear under different levels of global warming.
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‘Global numbers such as glacier mass or area loss can feel very abstract. With this website, people can zoom into their own valley or mountain region and see what different levels of global warming could mean for the glaciers they know,’ said Lander Van Tricht, who developed the website.
‘We hope it can also help local communities prepare for a future with fewer glaciers.’
Under a scenario of 1.5°C of global warming, around 2,000 glaciers per year are projected to disappear worldwide – a figure that roughly doubles under 4°C. By 2100, almost half of today’s could remain in a 1.5°C warming scenario, compared to about 20 per cent at 2.7°C and fewer than 10 per cent at 4°C.
‘Every fraction of a degree matters,’ said Van Tricht. ‘Limiting warming to 1.5°C could preserve more than twice as many glaciers as a 2.7°C trajectory by 2100.’
The newly available website builds on a recent study led by researchers from ETH Zurich and the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, together with an international research team. Their study provided the first worldwide assessment of glacier disappearance, showing that the world is approaching a period of unprecedented glacier extinction.
Due to a combination of lower winter snow and several summer heatwaves, 2026 may become one of the worst years for Alpine glaciers since systematic measurements began. In August this year, the Bella Tola Glacier near Saint-Luc in Switzerland was officially declared extinct, as was the Urirotstock Glacier in Switzerland.
‘The disappearance of a glacier is not the result of a single warm summer, but the culmination of decades of cumulative mass loss,’ said co-author Harry Zekollari.
‘Year after year, insufficient snowfall and strong summer melt gradually reduce a glacier until it can no longer sustain itself.’
In 2025, an analysis found that the world’s glaciers are melting faster than ever due to climate change. In stable climates, glaciers remain stable as they lose as much ice as they gain during snowfall. However, in recent years, glaciers have been dwindling in size.
Between 2000 and 2023, glaciers outside of major ice sheets in Antarctica and Greenland have lost around 270 billion tonnes of ice per year on average. To put that into perspective, 270 billion tonnes of ice is equivalent to the water consumption of the world’s population over 30 years, assuming three litres per person per day.
