Last year, WGMS scientists forecast that the Alps would lose up to three-quarters of their glaciers during the coming century.

BBC: NEWS | Science/Nature | Melting of glaciers 'speeds up'

With mountain glaciers typically only tens of metres thick, this meant, said WGMS director Wilfried Haeberli, that many would disappear on a timescale of decades if the trend continued.

BBC: NEWS | Science/Nature | Melting of glaciers 'speeds up'