A quarter of the glaciers in the contiguous United States have disappeared since the mid-20th century while the total area and volume of glaciers has dropped by about a third — and even more in California — a new study shows. The research, published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, is a particularly comprehensive assessment of the bleak state of glaciers and a stark indictment of climate change. Glacial melting in the Lower 48 states, a product of warming temperatures, is most severe in the Sierra Nevada and parts of the Rockies, the study suggests, due to warmer, drier conditions and glaciers that are generally smaller and less resilient. … The decline of the glaciers, long a nourishing — and defining — fixture of the mountain West, is already having repercussions. Foremost, it’s robbing alpine ecosystems of needed moisture and squeezing water supplies for cities and farms. 

Related:

• The Conversation: Blog: 300 glaciers have disappeared from the American West since the mid‑20th century – the survivors have a few things in common​