Barka: The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has documented a record-breaking decline in ice mass across Iceland and along North America's Pacific coastline during 2025, sounding fresh alarms over the accelerating pace of cryospheric disintegration.

According to Oman News Agency, the WMO's 2025 State of the Climate report indicated that the annual ice mass balance ranked among the five lowest since comprehensive monitoring began in 1950, though the losses recorded this year did not quite eclipse the historic collapse observed between 2022 and 2023.

The organization further revealed that glacial melt contributed approximately 21 percent of global sea level rise between 1993 and 2018. Ocean warming remained the dominant driver, accounting for roughly 42 percent, while melting ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica contributed 15 percent and 8 percent, respectively.

Drawing on imagery from NASA's Terra satellite, scientists have determined that the world's glaciers lost an average of 267 billion metric tons of ice annually from 2000 to 2019. More troubling still, the rate of loss accelerated sharply-from 227 billion metric tons per year between 2000 and 2004 to 298 billion metric tons annually between 2015 and 2019, underscoring the relentless and quickening pace of climate-driven ice loss.