Within the past 20 years, the amount of glacier melting as a result of human activity has soared. This information has become available after a study was conducted by the University of Innsbruck in Austria.
It is claimed human influence is now the strongest driver of glacier melting which has been happening since the end of the "Little Ice Age" in the mid-19 century.
Scientists had calculated between 1851 and 2010 that only a quarter of glacial melting loss was down to humans. However this has changed in the last two decades and now it is thought that within that period, human contribution rose to two thirds.
These findings appear in the journal Science and used climate computer simulations which helped them to map global changes over the whole world outside the Antarctica.
The study was able to be carried out thanks to a global glacier database called the Randolph Glacier Inventory.
Scientists conducted the study by reconstructing the volume and area of each glacier in 1851. Simulations of two different kinds then predicted how glaciers may have withdrawn since.
One of the simulations only included natural factors whereas the other also looked into human factors such as changes in land use and emissions.
The lead researcher, Dr Ben Barzeion commented: "Typically, it takes glaciers decades or centuries to adjust to climate changes. In the 19 and first half of 20 century we observed that glacier mass loss attributable to human activity is hardly noticeable but since then has steadily increased.
"While we keep factors such as solar variability and volcanic eruptions unchanged, we are able to modify land use changes and greenhouse gas emissions in our models. In our data we find unambiguous evidence of anthropogenic contribution to glacier mass loss."
