Earth’s ice melting more quickly A study published in the Journal of Cryosphere suggests ice is melting 57 per cent faster than in the previous three decades. Altogether, an estimated 28 trillion tonnes of ice have melted away since the mid-1990s. Melting land ice added enough water to the ocean during this time period to raise the global sea level by 3.5 centimetres on average. Mountain glacier ice loss accounted for 22 per cent of the annual totals of sea level rise. Ice tracking technology In Tuktoyaktuk, N.W.T., the Canadian-based social enterprise Sea-Ice Monitoring And Real Time Information for Coastal Environments has installed sensors near Husky Lakes to monitor ice thickness. For residents, it makes a huge difference — not having to guess ice thickness gives harvesters and travellers more confidence when travelling across the ice.