Illustration of annual global land ice loss shown for scale against the skyline of London, UK. As the climate warms Earth is permanently losing more than a trillion tonnes of ice each year. From a total of 1,196 gigatonnes (Gt) of ice lost each year, 543 Gt is land ice made up of 266 Gt from glaciers and 277 Gt from the ice sheets covering Greenland and Antarctica. The rate of loss is increasing. Ice lost from glaciers, ice sheets and frozen land contributes to sea level rise. Data from ESA-CCI.