Temperature changes and a lack of snow are causing 90 per cent of the world's glaciers to retreat and some to disappear completely.
This has potentially catastrophic consequences for communities that rely on the meltwater for irrigation, hydroelectric schemes and drinking.
Research in Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas all pointed to the same conclusion - climate change is causing increasingly rapid melting of the ice.
Only Scandinavian and Alaskan glaciers are holding their own or increasing. In both cases this is due to increased snowfall also caused by climate change.
Although it has been known for some time that glaciers are in retreat, this is the first time that such a large body of evidence has been brought together.
The loss of ice will increase sea levels worldwide. In the Alps, where summer temperatures have risen by 2.1C since the 1970s, summer flows in glacier-fed rivers have doubled.
Prof David Collins, professor of physical geography at the University of Salford, said this year glaciers were melting more than he had ever seen.
"Temporarily, it might be seen as good news for summer flows. After all, the extra water from the glaciers this summer has meant hydroelectric dams have been topped up so they can run on maximum power.
"But longer terms, when the glaciers disappear, there will be no meltwater at all, and it will reduce as the glaciers get smaller and survive only on the highest mountains."
Mr Stephan Harrison, of the Oxford University school of geography and environment, said in Africa most glaciers would disappear in 20 years. A paper on the Ruwenzori mountain range, between Uganda and Congo, showed that the glaciers which feed the headwaters of the Nile were so thin that they would soon disappear. -(Guardian Service)