Quantifying global warming from the retreat of glaciers

Records of glacier fluctuations compiled by the World Glacier Monitoring Service can be used to derive an independent estimate of global warming during the last 100 years. Records of different glaciers are made comparable by a two-step scaling procedure: one allowing for differences in glacier geometry, the other for differences in climate sensitivity. The retreat of glaciers during the last 100 years appears to be coherent over the globe. On the basis of modeling of the climate sensitivity of glaciers, the observed glacier retreat can be explained by a linear warming trend of 0.66 kelvin per century.
As suggested by many historic records, valley glaciers are sensitive indicators of climatic change[1-5]. This large sensitivity is a consequence of the typical properties of a melting ice or snow [...]