§ Norman BakerTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what net change in the percentage of(a) area and (b) volume of glacier there has been in each of the last 10 years. [171510]
§ Mr. MorleyYearly information on glaciers is not available as very few of them are monitored in detail. However, it is possible to infer how glacier volume is changing from measurements of sea level rise. By using values given in the "Third Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change", and estimates of sea level rise of 0.4 mm per year during the 1990s, it is estimated that glacier volume decreased by approximately 0.2 per cent. per year during the 1990s.